Scarlet Eyes
by Peatal
Summary: “Y-you s-should have j-just killed m-me,” Geo whispered in pain, before he fell in a heap to the ground, dead. I just looked at him in horror. I was too shocked to breathe. *Chapter 25 up!*
1. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 1

************Scarlet Eyes**************

~~By: Peatal Dende Alota Chickorita

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Saiya-jin and Super Saiya-jin belong to the creator of DBZ. All the active characters in this story were created by me, therefore they are mine.

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Spink always told me I was different from what was left of the Saiya-jin. I believed him. I don't remember ever having my tail. Spink told me it was cut off my our mother when I was a baby. She had tried to burn his off, but had failed, it scorched it somewhat to this day. I was also different because I didn't have black hair, I had a deep brown color hair. Neither Spink nor I could figure out how else I was different, but there WAS something. Nobody could quite place it. 

I sat beside Spink at the Op 3 café (Op stands for Operating Stations). In all, there were about 5 Ops. Ops were circular space station like artificial mini-planets, except we didn't live ON the Op, we lived IN the Op. On each of these Ops, there were about 10 stations. Each station had/held about 25-30 people. The café was located in the center of Op 3, on the middle floor. The classrooms and Training Center A were on the floors below the café and the Control Centers, Artificial Land Room and Training Center B were on the floors above. Scattered throughout the Op were the stations.

I glanced at Spink. He hadn't even touched his sandwich. "What's wrong?" I asked, concerned. What kind of Saiya-jin didn't eat his lunch? "You're my little sis, I swore to look after you," he answered, a little too dramatically for my liking. Aw, shut up. I'm going because I want to get off this stupid Op!" I answered, annoyed. "What's a promise to a dead guy, anyway?" I asked. He got up and left. "Fine, be that way!" I yelled at him, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. I picked up his sandwich and went to our Station Lobby.


	2. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 2

~~~~~~ Scarlet Eyes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Tears

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It was a 'sunny' day in the Artificial Land Room. I knew every inch of the Op, I had performed every mischievous thing possible in an Op, I was bored. The Artificial Land Room became boring today more easily than normal. I took the elevator down to Training Room B. The equipment there was too easy for me, I didn't care. I had to do something I didn't have to think about doing.

I carefully inched up the gravity room to 500x. An adult struggled out of the room, he was Super, but the weak kind of Super (none of the adults had tails, they were supposed to chop them off at 20), the 500x was too much for him. What a WIMP! I rolled up my sleeves and stepped inside. 

I looked around my room, it was empty besides a sword on the coffee table. I picked up my bags and slung them over my shoulder, not looking back at the sword. I walked past Spink in the lobby. He grabbed one of my arms. "Sis, don't go," he pleaded. "Let go of me, and don't cry," I told him sharply. 

Spink might be my older bro, but sometimes I felt like I was older. It must have been mental damage caused by when our mother tried to burn his tail off. He clung to me like a little kid. There was a hurt look in his eyes. I sighed, "Look, I left you the sword, I won't need it. I promise I'll come back to you, unless I'm dead, okay?" I said pulling free from his grasp. I ran out the door with him chasing me.

I ran up to the loading docks. There, some Supers stopped Spink from following me any farther. I looked back. He was crying. "I'll come back!" I yelled over my shoulder. I was shoved into a modernized Saya-jin space pod.


	3. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 3

Scarlet Eyes  
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Spink's Sickness  
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"Is he going to stay in there 'till she gets back?" Mei, Spink's girlfriend asked.   
"Mei, he's fine. I got him to eat today," The nurse answered.   
"Can I see him today?" Mei asked, hopefully.  
"In an hour, I guess," the nurse answered.   
  
In exactly one hour, Mei was back.   
"I must warn you, he's somewhat delusional. I alao can't get him to let go of that sword. I keep waiting for the day I get my head chopped off. You know he hasn't been eating ,besides today, so he's rather thin," The nurse warned. Mei nodded.   
"Be careful," the nurse added as Mei went in.  
  
Mei was astonished. He was worse thean the nurse had warned. He sat in the chair, holding out the sword like he was ready to killl some evil spirit. Mei walked over and stood a few feet in front of him (so she couldn't get hit).  
"Spink, Spink. You okay? Hellow?" she asked.  
"Scarlet? Where are you?" He asked, searching around the room. When he found Meis face, his smile fell.  
"You're not Scarlet! You don't have her eyes! Who are you! What have you done with her?" He yelled.  
"Spink! It's me, Mei!" She yelled. He didn't hear he was up and swinging the sword around. Mei cowered in a corner.  
  
Mei opened her eyes.  
"What happened" she managed to ask.  
"Oh, you just were slashed in the arm by a lunatic," the doctor answered, absent-mindedly.  
"He's NOT a lunatic." Mei answered.   
"If you look at it from normal people's eyes, he is a lunatic," the dotor answered.  
"I guess so. But it's ONLY because his sister left. She's most likely to die," Mei answered, "When do you think she'll be back?"  
"If she doesn't die? About a week, at the least," he answered. 


	4. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 4

Scarlet Eyes   
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Away  
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I woke up. My body felt stiff and sore. I looked out the window. Almost instantly, after I was at least half-conscious I remembered Spink. I clearly saw the image of him clinging to me, crying. I sighed and went down the steps to the kitchen. I was hungry.  
  
When my foot hit the last metallic stair, a screen popped up in front of my face, nearly giving me a heart attack.   
"Hi! I'm glad to inform you that you're here, at Op Headquarters!" The guy on the screen said a little too happily for me.   
I moaned. "Than WHY am I still orbiting?" I asked., "Get me in there. The faster whatever it is umm… dead, the better."   
After a few minutes of intense arguing he surrendered and had to let me dock.   
  
I had to leave all my stuff besides the sword and destruction laser in my pod. The Op Headquarters workers lead me to the other two Saiya-jin warriors from my Op. One was a rough, muscular dude whose name was umm… I think it was Pokg. The other guy was thinner and didn't look like much, but he was the strongest warrior in Op 3, his name is Klit. They nodded at me and I smiled back. It was nice to know I was one of the elite three on our Op, maybe even the whole race.  
  
At the doors, we hesitated. The guide turned around and he scanned our faces while he was talking.   
"You three are the strongest warriors…" he choked off when he got to my face.   
"Umm… okay. Maybe not, but it's part of my speech so here we go.. Umm… where was I? Oh, yeah. The strongest warriors (Choke) living. I want you three to notice (Looks at me again) I said 'LIVING' the others may have died here in that very room, or from fear right here, where your standing. (Still looking at me…) You guys will probably perish so why did you come here to do this anyway?" He finished, his voice cracking on the last word.  
  
I was fed up. Who did this guy think he was, anyway? I leapt and pinned him to the wall, my hands in the position where if he had one wrong answer, I choked him.  
"Look, mister. I don't know what status you hold, or what kind of trick your trying to pull. But the fact that I'm a 'girl' doesn't make any ass of a difference of how strong I can be. Want me to demonstrate, or do you want to stop making those shitty comments about us?" I commanded, enjoying the horrified look on his puny face.  
"I'll stop," He choked.  
Kilt and Pokg clapped as I slammed the guy against the wall, causing him to go unconscious.   
  
I looked up at the little screen hovering behind me. It was the same guy who I fought with in the pod kitchen earlier.   
"What do you want?" I asked, harshly.  
"I was just telling you… that I-I'm sending down a-another person with k-keys to…" He stammered.  
"Don't bother," I replied, and plucked the keys off the guy I had just knocked out.  
"O-okay. G-good l-luck-" He started.  
"Shut up. If you can't talk without stammering you might as well eat a few knuckle sandwiches instead!" I cut in.  
  
The key to the door didn't turn very willingly, until I figured out that you had to push the button AND turn the key at the same time. Pokg went in first. I cut in front of Kilt and went in second. I heard him say under his breath,  
"Power, AND she knows how to use it."  
The room was misty and it was hard to see in the fog. It was a former Artificial Land Room. Since the 'Mio' had invaded it ,though, they had sealed him in here. As the old saying goes "Nobody goes in, if they do, they never come out."  
  
I didn't see anybody. I lost sight of Kilt and Pokg. I was now alone in the fog, in a room with an unknown monster in a weird room. I turned on all my senses. I pulled out my sword (not the one I left) and held it in front of me. This was Not good. I don't even know how this creature operates (besides the stories I've been told, who knows what they changed). I heard a soft whisper and sensed something. I couldn't quite place where the whisper came from, but it was freaking me out. After all, I had promised Spink I would come back alive, not dead.  
  
There was silence. A deafening silence. The kind of silence where you hear a small ringing in your ears. I turned in slow circles. Watching the never-changing fog. All the sudden I heard the faint sound of someone firing an energy-blast. I ran towards the sound. I knew who it was. 


	5. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 5

Scarlet Eyes  
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Fought  
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I started to be able to make out the shape of Kilt. I yelled to him.   
"Don't attack! It's me, Scarlet!" I yelled as he spun around.  
I could make him out clearly now.  
"This place is creepy I don-" I started.  
"Lookbehindyou!" he screamed, as if it were al one word. I spun around, Sword in front of me, to fin Pokg, standing in front of me without a care in the world.  
"I heard somebody scream, who was it?" I asked.  
"What are you talking about? I didn't hear a scream, and I didn't scream," Kilt said.  
"Ditto," Pokg replied.  
  
"I swear, I heard it from this direction…" I trailed off. If it wasn't Kilt or Pokg, the monster could imitate our voices.   
"Pokg," I started, turning to look at him.  
"Yeah, umm…" he trailed off in thought.  
"Kilt," I did the same.   
"Yeah, Scar," he asked.  
I knew now. I spun around and chopped off Pokg's head with my sword. Kilt was ecstatic.  
"What did you do that for?" he yelled, nearly choking me. I nodded to the place where Pokg had been.  
  
"So let me get this straight, the 'Mio' or whatever can copy our DNA ?" he said.  
"Sorta. When you guys answered my first question, I was confused. I would have sworn I heard Pokg scream. When I started asking him something, he didn't know my name. You did," I answered.  
"So he was the Mio?" Kilt asked.  
"Not necessarily. I said the Mio can copy DNA. Pokg is somewhere. The REAL Pokg. You know how the Mio's body turned to liquid a few minutes after I cut the head off," I asked.  
"Yeah," he answered.  
"That's what I'm concerned about. Stay close. Lets go find Pokg," I commanded.  
"Right, I saw what you did to that guide dude, I don't wanna end up like him," he said. I smiled.  
"Then follow my directions, idiot," I said.  
  
We discovered Pokg by a tree stump, it was no use, he was dead. It was apparent. There was a hole right through his body.   
"Oh well, he was a good warrior," Kilt said.  
"Tell me about it," I answered, I had gotten beat up by him once when we were kids. See, on an Op, everyone knows everyone else. Kilt put his hand on my shoulder.  
"Did you feel that?" he asked.  
"Yeah, be on guard. Don't let go, we can't let the Mio, if he's still alive trick us again," I ordered, having felt the surge too.  
"Hey I saw what you did to tha-" He started.  
"Shut up!!" I whispered.  
  
It wasn't long until the Mio showed up. It wasn't much different than us. It just was smaller and wider, and was purple. I went Super and Kilt followed suit. It attacked us after a minute, but we were ready. I cut off it's head and he sliced it in two. This was easy. When it didn't turn to liquid, I was convinced it was dead. It was, too.   
  
Kilt and I walked back to where the doors were, and banged until, the guide dude (yes, the one I beat up) opened the door.   
"Did you get it?" he asked, not noticing there were only two of us.  
"We think, hey, you better close those doors, if it's still alive, it can get out," I said.  
"Huh? Where's the other guy?" he asked.  
"Dead, like a rock," Kilt answered. 


	6. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 6

Scarlet Eyes  
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Useless Chapter  
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"What?" Mei asked, again.  
"Arrrgh, I have told you this too many times now," replied the nurse.  
"Again," replied Mei.  
"Okay. I found a metallic ((In case you were wondering, metallic is the most abundant resource for the Saiya-jin Ops)) reader on Spink's head. I traced it to somewhere fifty-something miles away to some unknown asteroid-thing. I don't know who it is, but I think it was doing that for a purpose," answered the nurse, annoyed.  
  
The nurse was correct, Mei knew that. It was up to something. Who knows what. Something, though, was going to happen.  
"What?" Mei asked the nurse again.  
"Can I change the topic now?" asked the nurse.  
"Yep," answered Mei.  
"I heard a rumor from a friend of a Communication Control Official. It seems that Scar and Kilt beat whatever it is and are going to come back," informed the nurse. (Guess What?) Spink heard.  
"Really?" he asked, weakly, but with excitement.  
"That's-"started the nurse.  
"YEAHHHH!" screamed Spink. (So much for being weak and feeble…)  
  
Three days later Spink was back to normal.   
'The nurse should have told him she was coming back sooner,' Mei thought. This was nuts. Very weird. The control center people had called everyone to the café. What was the deal? One of the guys stood up and cleared his throat so everyone would pay attention.   
  
"So Pokg's DEAD?" Mei asked again (doesn't she have a knack for having things repeated a gazillion times?).   
"Yes, that's what I said," answered the control dude person thingy-migigger.   
"Just making sure," Mei said.  
An older woman spoke up, "How did he die?" she asked.  
"The Mio. Scar and Kilt said he had a hole through his body," answered the guy.   
"Eeeeewwwwww," Chimed up some girls in the back.  
"Shut the hell up," said another dude in response. It was hard to breathe in the packed café, so Spink left with Mei trailing behind him.  
  
"You knew him, right?" asked Mei again (there she goes yet AGAIN).  
"Sorta hims, Kilt, Io, and Codsa were in the same training partner group. Scarlet could beat up Io and Codsa easily. I remember one time when Scarlet came home pretty torn up. Pokg had beaten her up," answered Spink, on the verge of crying thinking of Scarlet.  
"Okay. Scar is coming back. Remember? She's leaving that Op tomorrow. I hear it's raining in the ALR, wanna come with me?" Mei ASKED. Spink likes rain.   
  
Spink turned his hand over again. A raindrop fell on it.   
"What are you doing?" asked Mei.   
"I sense something wrong," answered Spink.   
Mei didn't sense anything, but she had never been to good at sensing anything either, that's why she wasn't a good fighter.  
"What is it?" she asked.  
"I've never felt this surge before. It's not a Saiya-jin. That's for sure. I wonder who it is," Spink said. 


	7. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 7

Scarlet Eyes   
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The Big Boom  
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I climbed into the pod promising myself I wouldn't sleep the whole way home like I had coming. On the screen that popped up in front of me was the guy I had beaten up for the keys.   
"Great, what shit do you want now?" I asked, seriously annoyed.  
"Well, soooorrie! I was just wondering if you could give my keys back before you left," he said.  
"Damn, You idiot. I didn't take them with me, naw DUH!" I yelled at him.  
"Then where are they?" he asked, a little annoyed now too.  
"Still in the damn door!" I answered.  
  
Three months in a pod is pretty boring. After about two and a half months I had eaten all the food in the kitchen and had resorted to eating bread and cheese. I beat the solitaire game on the computer about a billion times and had given up on the battleconh game. When I was just about suicidal from boredom, a screen came up. I was just about to destroy it until I noticed it wasn't the damn guild.   
  
"Hey, calm down, you look like your at the point of suicide," Kilt said.  
"Well, whet do you think I've been doing for the past-WAIT! You mean were back?" I asked.  
"Uhhh, not exactly. My pod couldn't keep me asleep to much longer. That happened last time too." he answered.  
"Shit," I replied.  
"It's not that bad," he answered.  
"I suppose, at least now I have someone to talk to," I said.  
"Heh, yeah, I guess so," he said.  
Is this guy an idiot? I'm here in the act of committing suicide- opps! I lowered the sword. He laughed.  
  
Meanwhile (I've been dieing to use that word), at the Op. Spink and Mei were heading toward the forest in the ALR. Spink did say it was coming from that direction.   
"Where are we?" asked Mei after an hour in the forest.   
"Dunno," answered Spink. Mei flew up over the trees.  
"So?" asked Spink (still too weak to fly).  
"All I see are trees. It's like they took over. I think it stopped raining too," Mei said.   
  
"What's THAT?" Mei asked.  
"Do I look like I know?" Spink answered. It was a small old man hunched over. He had a red cape and there were three long black spikes poking out of his back.  
"You okay mister?" Mei asked. The man either groaned or chuckled, Mei nor Spink could tell.   
"Uh, sir?" Spink spoke loudly.  
"Shut up!" the man yelled.  
"Huh?" asked Spink?  
"Go to hell!" screamed the man, shooting off an energy ball around him killing Mei and Spink.  
  
The man walked out of the ALR and turned to the nearest person'.   
"I think there was an accident in there," said the man. The control guy ran to the audio room. Soon enough, everyone in the whole Op was in the ALR, searching. The man chuckled. There was a burning light. It swept mercifully throughout the whole Op, until it arrived at the engine orbit room. **BIGGGG EXPLOSION** 


	8. Scacarlet Eyes Chapter 8

Scarlet Eyes  
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Return Of Disaster  
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"Whoa did you see that?" I asked.  
"Yeah, what was that, an explosion?" said Kilt.  
"Yeah, in the direction of our Op, too!" I put in.   
"Oh, no, what if it WAS our Op?" Kilt asked, worried now. What is it with guys acting like babies?  
"It's not, remember the Ops are bomb-proof." I answered.  
"Oh yeah Okay well at least well-" Kilt started.  
  
The screen came up beside the one of Kilts still-worried face. It was the jerk guy whom you've heard too much about. "Uhhhh, sorry to bother you again, Scarlet-" he started, his voice shaking even though I'm a few billion light-years away.   
"What in the hell do you want now?" I asked.  
"We lost contact with your Op about two minutes ago," he said.   
"No you didn't" I said, holding up my fist.  
"Uhhhh, sorry, okay, no we didn't, sorry," he said.  
"Okay, I was just making sure," I said.   
  
"What did he mean?" asked Kilt.  
"He meant that the Op blew up," I answered.  
"He was joking though?" he asked. What an idiot, he may be a good fighter, but short on brains.  
"I dunno. Lets just get back to the Op," I answered.   
  
We docked at the loading station. I walked in through the loading corridor. Where was everyone?  
I walked to the café, there was a message still showing on the main screen. 'Everyone report to the Artificial Land Room'.  
"What are you standing there for?" asked Kilt.   
We headed towards the ALR.  
  
"Oh my God!" I screamed. Kilt grabbed me from behind and pushed me back out.  
"No, no, no, no," I kept repeating.   
"I think you would be better mentally off if you stayed out here," he said. Naw duh. I was freaking out. Everyone is dead!   
  
"I moved the bodies around so we could walk through," he said, about three hours later as I took in the disaster.   
"One thing to make you feel better first," he said.  
"What?" I snapped.  
"I didn't find Mei nor Spink's body," he said.   
"Oh my God, you didn't?" I asked (now I'm sounding like Mei).  
"No, but I'll look," he said. 


	9. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 9

Scarlet Eyes  
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Return Of Disaster  
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"Whoa did you see that?" I asked.  
"Yeah, what was that, an explosion?" said Kilt.  
"Yeah, in the direction of our Op, too!" I put in.   
"Oh, no, what if it WAS our Op?" Kilt asked, worried now. What is it with guys acting like babies?  
"It's not, remember the Ops are bomb-proof." I answered.  
"Oh yeah Okay well at least well-" Kilt started.  
  
The screen came up beside the one of Kilts still-worried face. It was the jerk guy whom you've heard too much about. "Uhhhh, sorry to bother you again, Scarlet-" he started, his voice shaking even though I'm a few billion light-years away.   
"What in the hell do you want now?" I asked.  
"We lost contact with your Op about two minutes ago," he said.   
"No you didn't" I said, holding up my fist.  
"Uhhhh, sorry, okay, no we didn't, sorry," he said.  
"Okay, I was just making sure," I said.   
  
"What did he mean?" asked Kilt.  
"He meant that the Op blew up," I answered.  
"He was joking though?" he asked. What an idiot, he may be a good fighter, but short on brains.  
"I dunno. Lets just get back to the Op," I answered.   
  
We docked at the loading station. I walked in through the loading corridor. Where was everyone?  
I walked to the café, there was a message still showing on the main screen. 'Everyone report to the Artificial Land Room'.  
"What are you standing there for?" asked Kilt.   
We headed towards the ALR.  
  
"Oh my God!" I screamed. Kilt grabbed me from behind and pushed me back out.  
"No, no, no, no," I kept repeating.   
"I think you would be better mentally off if you stayed out here," he said. Naw duh. I was freaking out. Everyone is dead!   
  
"I moved the bodies around so we could walk through," he said, about three hours later as I took in the disaster.   
"One thing to make you feel better first," he said.  
"What?" I snapped.  
"I didn't find Mei nor Spink's body," he said.   
"Oh my God, you didn't?" I asked (now I'm sounding like Mei).  
"No, but I'll look," he said. 


	10. Chapter 10

Scarlet Eyes  
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Slight Weakness  
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"I never thought that there would be people out this far," Kilt said, surveying the three dead bodies.  
"Well, whoever they are, they're not Mei nor Spink. They looked like they had been searching for something.   
"Oh well, lets keep going-by air," Kilt said.  
"No," I said.  
"Damn! You're confusing me!" Kilt complained.   
"Oh well, I don't give a shit if I am or not," I said.  
  
"We've been walking for hours!" Kilt complained.  
"The trees are too dense to see through so there would be NO sense whatsoever to fly. We need to find them," I ordered.  
"Whatever you say, ooh mighty Scar!" he joked.   
"Shut up," I said, as we kept going through the woods.   
  
"Look! There's something-okay, I'm just shutting up," he started before I ran off, way ahead of him.  
"Oh My God!" I screamed, running over to Spink.  
"Spink? Spink? Spink!" I yelled.  
"Mei looks dead," Kilt said. Spink was still breathing a little.  
"Spink? It's me, Scarlet!" I said.   
"Scar?" he muttered.  
"Come on, lets get him to the hospital room," Kilt suggested.   
"Spink?" I asked.  
"Yeah," he said.  
"Okay, hold on a sec.," I said to Kilt.  
"Spink, can you tell me what happened?" I said.  
"Yeah, later," he managed to say.  
"Okay, how are we gonna get him back?" I asked Kilt.  
  
We finally decided on Kilt carrying the legs and me carrying the his arms. It was pretty awkward, but it was the only way we could carry him. After about five hours of struggling with Spink we made it. I took care of him until he was a little better. I finally gained the courage to ask him again.  
"What happened?" I asked. He turned over, and faced away from me. 


	11. Chapter 11

Scarlet Eyes   
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The Truth and the Dead  
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"Come on! Tell us, NOW!" Kilt started impatiently.  
"Stop it, leave him alone," I said.  
"That's it, I'll leave him alone… and then he'll die, I know you don't want that to happen!" Kilt tore back. Ouch.  
"Shut up," I said.  
"Shoot, Spinkie, will you just tell us?" He said, ignoring me.  
"My name isn't Spinkie!" Spink managed to say.  
" The chance that he's gonna tell you now is smaller," I sneered.  
"Yeah, and so?" he snapped.  
  
Something was wrong with Kilt. Never before had he been like this. I thought it was depression. He did have to move all those corpses around earlier. Who knows what he saw, I was freaked out by what I had seen. Poor Kilt.  
  
"Yo, Kilt, you okay?" I asked, having my conclusion.  
"Yeah, sure I'm fine," he said. Spink was asleep now and whimpering like a baby. Kilt motioned at Spink.  
"He's your weakness," Kilt said.  
"Huh?" I asked.  
"Spink. He's your weakness. You freaked out when you saw all the dead people, you thought Spink was one of them, that's why you spazzed," Kilt said. So maybe he was right. Spink was the only one who lived. But still, what is wrong with Kilt?  
  
"You seem to know me pretty well. It doesn't seem to be vice versa though," I said, sitting at the other side of the table and started to clean my sword.   
"Would you quit doing that?" he said, annoyed.  
"Doing what?" I asked.  
"Cleaning your damn sword," he said, twisting the table cloth.  
"It's not a damn sword, it seemed to serve me pretty good the other day when we were fighting that thing at the main Op," I said, still cleaning my sword.  
"Whatever you say, it's not a damn sword, but can you quit cleaning it?" he said.  
"Why? It's dirty and It won't do me too much good when it's dirty," I said.  
"Damn girls and their cleaning crap," he muttered.  
"Shit, tell me what in the hell is wrong, or the next thing you know, your head will be gone," I threatened, holding up the sword menacingly.   
  
"He's never gonna tell us what happened," Kilt said. Kilt had a point, but that wasn't what he was upset about.  
"I don't care if he tells us or not, that's not what's wrong with you. You are driving me crazy now. You gotta tell me what in the hell is wrong!" I said, starting to get annoyed myself.  
"Shit, leave me alone, would you?" he said. Damn it, now he's sounding like a dang teenager. Hey! Wait, we are. Damn it.   
"If this is that freaky teenager thing, I swear, you're gonna lose your head. Also, if you're doing this as a joke, ditto!" I said.  
"I don't wanna lose my head. Who would want to lose their head?" He said, extremely annoyed.  
"Please?" I asked.  
"I don't want to scare you," he said. Damn it, scare me? Huh?  
  
I walked back over to Spink, who was now waking back up. Shit, Kilt and I had stayed up all damn night arguing.   
"Spink, will you please tell us what happened now?" I asked. Hey, good to try when they just wake up.  
"I sensed a weird thing in the woods," he said.  
"What did you do?" asked Kilt, amazed that Spink was telling us.  
"I went towards it, into the woods, Mei followed me. We walked for hours," Spink mumbled.  
"Okay?" I said.  
"There was a guy, he looked sort of dead to me," he choked.  
"What did he look like?" Kilt asked.  
"Red cape, spikes, old-looking," Spink managed to sputter. Me and Kilt both knew that Spink was quickly running out of energy.  
  
"What happened after you found him?" Kilt pushed on.  
"He shot out this energy attack…where's Mei?" Spink said.  
"I can't find her," I lied, and glanced at Kilt, "Kilt, maybe you should go out and look some more," I said, then mouthing, 'don't bring her back'. Spink sat up, and stared at me.  
"Scar?" He asked.  
"Yeah?" I said.  
"Damn it, you should have stayed here, this probably wouldn't have happened," he said. I didn't say anything, he was right. I took out some sterilizers and dabbed at the gash on Spink's forehead.  
  
I soon discovered two of Spink's bones were broken or bruised and he had five burns on his face and three serious gashes.   
"He can't live too much longer, he's in critical condition and we don't know how to play doctor," Kilt said that night. I didn't answer.   
"What else did you get out of Spink after I left?" Kilt asked.  
"Damn it, you should have stayed here, this probably wouldn't have happened," I quoted, sadly.  
"Ouch," Kilt said.   
"Where did you go?" I asked.  
"Engine room, to see if I could fix a damn thing," he answered.  
"Bad?" I asked.  
"Really bad, this Op isn't even going to make it more than a year," he said, staring at me.  
  
Cries of pain went up from Spink, tearing all thoughts of engines and concentration.  
"Spink, what's wrong?" I asked. Spink's mouth moved, but no sound but pain came out.  
"What's going on?" I asked Kilt, as if he would know.  
"I think the burn from the attack is finally getting to him," Kilt answered. I ran up to the vacant café and filled up several bags with ice. I didn't trust the elevator so this task took me about one hour to complete, even flying.  
  
Kilt poked his head out the door, took the ice, and shoved me back out.  
"Hey! Let me in! He's my brother!" I screamed. I could hear shouts of pain from Spink. I recognized them from when I was a baby, when our mother had tried to burn off his tail. It sounded exactly like that. I sat on the ground with my back to the door and cried, like I had then. Kilt poked his head out the door.  
"Damn, now don't you start," he said, then closing the door again. After a while Spink stopped screaming and I fell asleep. Hey, if you haven't slept for three days, you know how I feel.   
  
I stretched and rubbed my eyes. Kilt was sitting across from me in the hall.   
"About time you damn woke up," he said.  
"Well, if I hadn't been arguing with you for the past few days, I wouldn't have fallen asleep!" I argued.  
"Sorry Scar," he said.  
"Whatever," I said standing up.  
"Scar?" Kilt asked.  
"Yeah?" I said.  
"Don't go in there," he said.   
"Too late," I answered.  
Spink was asleep and slightly crying. I sat down beside the bed. I started whispering and comforting him.  
"Spink, it's okay, I'm here now. I know burns hurt and that it probably brought back memories," said.  
  
"Memories?" Kilt asked. I sighed.  
"When I was a baby our mother cut off my tail and tried to burn his off. The cried all night then the next day, he killed her," I said.  
"Killed who?" he asked.  
"Our mother you dim wit," I said. Hey our mother had deserved it. Nobody thought that a three year old could kill a grown Saiya-jin, so they had this big search for who killed her, but I wasn't about to tell Kilt that.  
"I'm glad I did," Spink muttered, "and I'm glad you're here."   
"Thank you, Spink. It's gonna be okay. Nobody's gonna burn you anymore," I said.  
"I guess you better go find something for us to eat, otherwise I'm gonna end up eating your damn clean sword," Kilt said.  
"Oh, don't eat that, it wouldn't do too good going down your damn throat," I said.  
  
I found some raw Hectl and brought it back. Kilt opened the door.   
"Something's wrong with Spink," he said. I dropped the Hectl and ran inside.   
"Spink!" I said.   
"Forth the tops of valley leave yep of got met sep mill," he muttered.  
"He's delirious," I said.  
"I knew that! Just listen," Kilt commanded.  
"Mei hip camel future me wee," Spink croaked. I backed up.  
"Scarlet," Spink said. I came back up.  
"Yes, Spink it's me Scarlet, please talk normally," I said.  
"Where's Scarlet?" He asked, his voice getting shaky.  
"Right here! Spink! Here I am!" I said.   
"Scar," Spink said, quite clearly. I couldn't say anything more, it was too hard to persist.  
"Scarlet," he whispered, then went unconscious.   
  
"I think you better go up to the ALR and see if anyone else is still alive," Kilt said. No more arguing with Kilt, he was probably stronger than me now. I walked off to the ARL. I found my self sprawled in the grass near the pond crying the next day. I cleaned my face then left. I went to the café and found some sushi in the freezer. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth from my shirt and went back to the room. Kilt answered the door like he had been doing for the past few days.   
"Spink's dead," Kilt said. I know I dropped the sushi, but I was unaware of it. Kilt stopped me from going in.   
"You know that guy we saw at the control room?" Kilt said. I nodded, I couldn't speak.  
"I think he's the guy who did all of this," Kilt said.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
I know this was a long chapter and I'm sorry. Had a lot to say. 


	12. Chapter 12

Scarlet Eyes   
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Fights and History   
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I didn't freak out. I didn't even have a sense of what Kilt said. I wanted to find out who this guy was, and why he did whatever he did. Spink was dead, for sure, no questions asked. The whole population on the Op was well, dead, except for Kilt and me. Never again will I leave when there's people to protect. I will never forgive myself. I know what's wrong with Kilt, now. He was afraid of that guy, he didn't want to scare me, he said it himself. He just figured he would shove it all in my face at once. Good idea, that way I couldn't spazz out.  
  
"Lets find him," said Kilt the next day, finally speaking up. He didn't need any answer. I got up, strapped on my sword, and pulled on my old long black fighting glove thing.  
"It's not gonna be that bad a battle," Kilt said.  
"Yeah, it is, because you're not gonna help me," I said.  
"Please repeat that?" Kilt said.   
"You won't help me any," I answered.  
"Explain," Kilt said, eyeing me (I hate it when he does that).  
"This is my battle, from the way Spink had been explaining it was that they were attacked at not quite the same time as the others were, before by the sound of it," I said.   
  
"Well, aren't we miss-little-I-have-to-do-this-mayself today?" Kilt joked.  
"Shut up!" I screamed.  
"Grouchy too!" Kilt joked.   
"I'm not, I have a valid reason, seems to me like you're the one who's grouchy today mister-insistent-nosey-pants," I said, pulling my hair up in a ponytail and letting the front hair fall back down as usual.   
"You know you're not strong enough," said Kilt.  
"I am too. You just don't think I can kill an old man by myself do you, we also need to get off this Op within the next few months. How about you go find a good planet to reside on, or another friendly Op," I said.  
"On your life! That's YOUR job! I'll go fight, you search!" Kilt said.   
  
I withdrew my sword, and held it up.   
"Oh, you want a damn demonstration?" I said.  
"Um, sure! I'll prove you can't kill this guy!" Kilt said, standing up. I went super and took fighting stance almost mechanically.   
"I was just kidding Scar! I'm sure you can kill this guy! Sorry," Kilt said, sorta scared now.  
"Well you sounded pretty serious to me!" I said, returning to normal, but not putting my sword back.   
"I was kidding, I swear!" Kilt lied. Hey, he was a good liar, but I wasn't falling for it.  
"I think you were pretty serious! You're a horrible liar," I said, second sentence being a lie.   
"Okay, just put the sword down, please?" He pleaded. I savored the helpless look on his face for a few minutes more then I put my sword back.   
"I'll deal with you later, just find another Op or planet," I said.  
"Can I please just come with you?" Kilt pleaded.  
  
I gave in eventually. Yeah, I could have just killed him, but sure. I found the sword I had left with Spink when I had gone. I withdrew my sword and handed it to Kilt.  
"Use this," I said. Hey, it's better than his heavy piece of shit he has, hell, his was rusting too. I replaced my sword (I gave to Kilt) with the older (and damn lighter) sword (the one I left with Spink, remember that?).   
"What's with you two and that sword?" Kilt asked.   
"Oh, Spink would never fight without it because it was our father's sword or something like that. Spink also hated it when I went to fight without him because he promised he would never let anyone hurt me in a fight," I said.  
"He did a good job of it, and I really didn't need to hear that story," Kilt said (Still eyeing me, I HATE that!).  
"Damn it, will you stop that?" I said.  
  
"Damn stop what?" Kilt asked.  
"Looking at me like that!" I said. Kilt tore his gaze.  
"Sorry, you are grouchy today, maybe you should wait to fight tomorrow," Kilt muttered.  
"Good idea," I said.   
"Let's go find an Op or planet!" Kilt said.  
"Huh?" I said.  
"You said we needed to get off this Op," Kilt said.  
"Oh yeah! Okay, lets try to find one!" I said.  
"To the control room!" Kilt commanded. 


	13. Chapter 13

Scarlet Eyes  
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To the Palm Trees and the Ocean  
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"Okay, where is it again?" Kilt asked.  
"Oh, you dumb ass. You sure as hell know where it is!" I told him.  
"Okay, okay, I just don't wanna leave…" Kilt stammered a bit.   
"Oh, shut up! We have to or-" I started.  
"Okay, I get the picture," he said.  
The Control Room door was jammed, the only other way in was through the window from the ALR. Neither of us wanted to step foot in that room whatsoever. It was… well… you get our pictures.  
  
"Your not gonna do that, you need to save-" Kilt started, and stopped, noticing that is was no use at all. I motioned for him to stand back a little, he didn't, oh well. I cupped my hands together in front of my face and I concentrated my strength into my hands. The familiar maroon light glowed as it gathered more power. I brought it up over my head.   
"Star Ball Flare Scar!!" The shimmering light blasted off my hands and slammed into the door. Kilt was knocked onto the floor from the aftershock of the blast.  
"I told you to move the heck back!" I jeered.   
"Shut up. Hey! You toasted the door!" Kilt said. I looked at where the door had been. It was melted down and now was a glob of steaming platinum on the floor. Oops, well, no one's gonna be here to use it anymore anyway.   
  
The control room wasn't in really good condition, but it works, assuming that Kilt just stopped the rain in the ALR. I turned on the Space Tracking Utility. I typed in 'Livable Uninhabited Planets' and the STU searched.   
"I'll take over now," Kilt said, like he wanted to. I got up and played with the ALR controls a little, making it foggy, so if I looked out the window… I could live… yeah. The STU beeped to signal the end of the damn search. Kilt turned around in his chair.  
  
"Okay, just let me type in the information… you'd think that a STU on a Saiya-jin Op would be formatted to search LIVABLE for SAIYA-JIN!" Kilt said, annoyed.  
"You took the words right out of my mouth." STU was asking questions. Right. I pulled up a chair, this was gonna take a while.   
"You know what," Kilt said.  
"What?" I said, annoyed already.  
"This is useless, the STU is messed up, it's not functioning properly anymore. I'm pulling up only the planets within a 900 light-year radius from here," He said.  
  
"So? What's so bad about that?" I asked.  
"Nothing, I guess," Kilt said.  
"Then WHY ARE WE WASTING PAPER?" I asked.  
"Paper?" Kilt asked. Oops! I wasn't supposed to know this is a fan fic! Oh well.  
"Never mind, wrong word, time," There goes a paragraph.   
  
Five planets, one Op.   
"Theslosin, Hiytara, Mochors, Bowtus, Youshey," Kilt read of the plasma screen of the STU.   
"And the Main Op…" I continued.  
"Yep," said Kilt, "you would really like that, to kill the jerk guy."  
"Yeah!" I said, genuinely exited.  
"Right, that's why were not going there," Kilt said. Oh well.   
"Then we have to choose from the planets," I said.  
"Yeah, I think Youshey would be neat, it's very tropical and warm there, unlike Hiytara that's so cold," he said. True. Hiytara is the coldest planet on the list, definitely out of the list now.   
"Mochors is volcanic, only partly, that would be interesting," I said.  
"No, it's a new planet, there might be living creatures on it in a few years," Kilt said.  
"Most unlikely, but sure no way," I said.  
  
We decided on Youshey. Tropical islands, blue oceans, sounds good to me, who agrees? Kilt did.  
"Youshey ho!" Kilt said.  
"Hold it," I said, "Aren't you forgetting something?"   
"Oh," was Kilt's only remark as he turned the STU off.   
"I'm gonna go set the Pods to go to the biggest land part on Youshey tomorrow," Kilt said as he left. I stayed. I rolled the chair over to the tracking device. 


	14. Chapter 14

Scarlet Eyes  
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Recognizable Sarcasm  
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NOW I strapped on my sword and all that other stuff. Kilt examined my old sword (The one I gave him to use, remember??) and made a few practice slashes in the air with it. Plaese! I pulled on my boots and tied my hair up again.   
"So, have fun," Kilt said.  
"What you're bailing already?" I joked.  
"No, I won't bother helping unless you need it," Kilt said. Oh, that helped my confidence, right.  
"Thanks for the encouragement," I said.  
"Sorry I didn't mean it that way," Kilt said  
  
The Op seemed abandoned, but I knew where to go. I know where whatever it is, is.   
Life couldn't get much better, well, maybe... Kilt was extremely exited for an unknown reason. Probably leaving the Op. It would take only a month to get there in the pods if things went as planned. IF things went as planned. IF either of us died, that was a screw up in the plans. If.   
  
I walked down the corridor to the only station on the same floor as the ALR, I had never knew it was there before, you were ever allowed in anyone else's station. Not mine. Not Kilt's. But I knew where I was going.  
"Where are we?" Kilt asked.  
"Station Three, were looking for room 20. Watch out, it could be anywhere though," I answered.  
"How do you know this crap?" He asked.  
"Easy, Op tracking device, in the Control Room, yesterday after you left, it brought up every living creature on the Op," I said.  
  
  
"How many?" He asked.  
"Not three," I said.  
"Huh?"  
"Four," I said. Now he eyed me again.  
"Stop, next time you look at me like that, you have a 99.9% chance of your head being missing from your shoulders!" I said.  
"Okay, okay," Kilt said, breaking his gaze.   
"Did you feel that?" Kilt asked, I was once again, way ahead of him. So much for yet another door.  
"Wait for me!" Kilt said. I held back, no use getting blown up over. I let him go in first so if the thing attacked, Kilt would take it. Heh heh, evil thoughts.  
  
  
The lights were off, and it was hard to see, Kilt seemed to be frozen, but moved over and sat by the door. As my eyes got used to the dark I made out two shadows, one small and fatter. The other one was tall and muscular. I recognized them both from somewhere, from somewhere. As I contemplated, I withdrew my sword but didn't dare go super or raise my power level at all. I heard Kilt murmur something.   
  
The taller shadow laughed a tad.   
"Scar…" Kilt whispered.  
"Huh?" I said, not moving.  
"They're too familiar… I think I know that laugh from somewhere," Kilt whispered.  
"Ahh, Kilt, nice to see you again, hiding behind Scar?" The shadow joked. I knew that taunting voice. It could be one of three people**. Kilt also knew it**. For each of the three I had somewhat witnessed each of their demises. NOT good.*  
  
**Author Note: Three people that Scar knows (knew). One of these people have only been spoken about several times. Kilt also knew these people. But did not necessarily have the same relationships as Scar does. Therefore, he recognized the voice as three people too.  
  
*Author Note: NOT good as in, as the author I can't decide on who in the hell I want it to be. I guess I'll decide in the next chapter… 


	15. Scarlet Eyes Chapter 15 The Jewel of Try...

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The Jewel of Tryon  
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I held my sword out, ready for an attack. Whoever this was, they were a good fighter. No, screw my whole last sentence. There were two good fighters. I powered up slowly to as high as I could without going Super and making any noise. The silence stood. It seemed like eternity. Finally, Kilt spoke.  
  
"Who... are you guys anyway?" Kilt said quietly, although we both already knew the answer to one of them.  
  
The small guy spoke first.  
"I am the wind, light and destruction of my domain. The person inside me can create thoughts, but not perfect them. Don't try to hurt me, for I am already dead. As life slides through my fingers like hot desert sand, I look back to where I knew who I was. I am now incomplete as a lie. Life holds no more for me, as I am just there. The beauty of death is unknown to all and therefore it is not. The wind, the light, the sky, the sea all had a part in my head. I am not who I thought I was or who I think I am. Who am I?" The short man said, attentively. I knew it. I hated it.  
"Shut up," I managed to force myself to say. I wasn't going to stand for this. I didn't want that little midget to be-  
"Scar," Kilt said. It was rather just saying my name other than a question, but I responded to it anyway.  
"Y-yeah?"  
"I don't like this."  
"Me either, matter of fact, I hate it."  
The tall one snickered and pointed at me.  
"The whole reason you were so strong anyway. That's gone now. You won't be able to stand up to the guide at OP headquarters. You won't be so willing to win, now. I was so successful in tricking you all." He said, a ki beginning to form at this outstretched finger. "And now I'll get back."  
I dodged the white ki and responded with a small ki of my own. Before I had the chance to shoot it, the white ki had turned around and came back at me from behind.   
"Pokg!" screamed Kilt at the tall man in the shadow.  
"Yes, aren't too happy about having to fight alone, now are you?" Pokg said, laughing quietly.  
Kilt snarled at him as I pulled myself back up to a standing position.  
"He won't have to fight alone. I'm not dead yet. Your stupid snowball attack I've built an immune system to. You used to get me with that one everyday. But I have one question before anyone dies." I said, regaining the breath that had been knocked out of me by the ki.  
"Yeah? Shoot," said Kilt and Pokg at the same time. If we had still been kids and not enemies like right now, somebody would be buying someone else a coke. But we were kids. We were only seventeen and eighteen. Not like we had bothered with calendars recently. Instead of jinx, Kilt and Pokg glared at each other with pure hatred.  
"Why?" I asked, recovering my sword, not taking my eyes off the short one. I wasn't bothered by Pokg, it was the short one who bothered me. There was silence. They didn't know why. Either that, or they didn't know how to use words.  
"Scar-"Kilt started.  
"Shut up, Kilt. You really don't know, Scar? You've forgotten the…" Pokg trailed off, seeing I didn't know why we were fighting.   
"Forgotten what?"  
"The-" Kilt started.  
"Shut up, bastard!" Pokg yelled at him. "You were never good at keeping your mouth shut. Scar, I'm sure you remember… no? Who drugged you?"  
Kilt glared at Pokg and unsheathed his sword.  
"I erased-"  
"How many times have I told you to shut up, Kilt?" Pokg screamed, charging up to super. "The Jewel of Tryon. Obviously, this dim-wit here erased your memory, good thing too."  
"Jewel of Try-what?" I said. "You guys are saying you're fighting over a story??"   
The small one smirked.   
"Scarlet, Scarlet, Scarlet. It was never a story. Even the whole fairytale was true. I'm surprised you had gotten you're memory erased. Out of all of us, you would be the one to remember it." he said.  
"Why would I ask for my memory erased?"  
"You didn't" Kilt said.   
I didn't get it. Not at all. The Jewel of Tryon was just a myth, but the way everyone was acting, it wasn't. I didn't want it to not be a myth. I first heard the fairy tale story when I was… eleven. That would mean it had to have happened when I was ten or eleven or maybe nine. Still, being a child, I would have known not to ask for my memory to be erased. There were, no, had been ten people aboard our OP with the power to erase. I didn't know Kilt was one of them. Not until now.   
  
~~  
The Jewel of Tryon  
~~  
Tryon (tree-on) was always a peaceful planet, basically because there were no groups living close enough together to even know the other one existed. The population in Tryon was sparse, because food was not abundant. Water was. There was water enough to support the entire planet with flowering veggies and fruits. But because of the Jewel, things were difficult to grow.   
On a mountain, in the remotest areas of Tryon, lived a sorceress. She was the keeper of the jewel. She was to let no one near it, and let it be eternally undisturbed.   
~  
  
"The sorceress…" I said quietly, trying to recall the story, but knowing no more. "She did something that brought havoc upon Tryon. You people mean to tell me that this isn't a fairytale and this happened seven years ago?"  
"The sorceress somehow discovered the jewel had many powers, powers that could make her invincible. Powers that would allow her to rule the universe." Kilt said.   
"Do you remember what happened next?" the short man asked me.  
"No. I really never paid attention to the story. It seemed like one of those power-hungry witch stories. I wished I had listened now." I said.  
Kilt smiled at me for a split second.  
"It was good that you didn't pay attention. Might have worn off the effects of my memory block." Kilt said solemnly.  
"Why did you erase her, anyway?" Pokg asked.   
"Because she wouldn't be like she is now. I'm kinda happy with my decision, personally, even though we'll have to tell her everything before you kill us. But, it also might not have broken the block anyway, since only one thing can do that, and I think she would rather just listen without even knowing what that was." Kilt said.  
"Bastard." Pokg said. "I could just kill you, tell her, and then kill her."  
"Yeah, but then you would be in a sticky spot when you got to the point where you weren't there, when the teams split." Kilt said.  
My mind was racing, I didn't know what was going on, and then they were fighting about when to kill me. I remembered some more when Kilt said teams split.  
  
~  
A group of junior Saya-jin was sent to stop the sorceress. They, however did not get along. The group split into two teams, according to their beliefs, and went about separate tactics to kill the sorceress. On team failed, the other did not fight the sorceress, but destroyed the jewel.  
~  
  
"The jewel was destroyed. I never heard the end of the story." I said.  
Kilt glanced over at me. "Good thing, too. Anyway, you must have remembered it up till there. You, Spink, Mei and Geo were in my group." Kilt said.  
I understood. We were the junior league, the child Saya-jin, sent to do one adult's job. Seven years ago.  
"The group of five. The… destroyers…" I said, really to myself other than Kilt.  
"Yeah. We banged up that rock nicely. And each of us kept a shard. That's why I erased you. I'll tell you the other reason if we live." Kilt said.  
"You erased me because we each got a shard?" I asked.  
"Your brother was the problem. You will fight for the death for that guy. The shard, if you had known you had it, you would have been…" the small guy started and trailed off before falling to… sleep?  
"Yeah. A little more powerful than any other being in the universe. Because you were the one who knew how to work it." Pokg said.  
"How did I know that?" I asked.  
Kilt sighed and sat down. Obviously, any grudge between Kilt and Pokg was being set aside for me. I was going to take advantage of that. Pokg rolled his eyes and sat down next to Kilt and pulled a granola bar out of his pocket. The short man woke up.  
"You were the spy. You were the best flyer. You saw the sorceress use the stone more than anyone else who lived." Kilt said, taking the half of granola Pokg offered him.  
"Oh. So that means I would have…"  
"Yeah. And then we wouldn't be here." Said the short guy, not coming out from the shadows still.  
"And who the hell are you?" I asked.  
"Geo. I was… well, I was almost killed by you when we went for the stone. You didn't want us to destroy it. You wanted the sorceress dead so we could return it to it's realm and keep Tryon the way it was. Tryon is now a planet of war. We should have listened to you," Geo said.   
This was deep. And it was creepy. They were talking to me like I was a little child learning about what I was supposed to be when I grew up, only opposite.   
"Shit, don't inflate her ego." Kilt said. "You haven't seen her ego in action yet."  
"I have." said Pokg.  
"Yeah. Poor guard guy." answered Kilt.   
"Hey, I was just pissed off at him anyway. It wasn't an ego thing!" I said.  
Pokg rolled his eyes and smiled at me. That was creepy. Kilt just looked at me with a funny look. I hated that, he was eyeing me for signs of emotion again.  
"Stop doing that! It drives me insane!" I yelled at him, half laughing.  
"Sorry. I still don't know what I'm doing, but sure." Kilt said.  
"What are you guys fighting about anyway?" I asked.  
"The Jewel of Tyron." Geo said.  
"I knew that! What about it?" I asked.  
"I need the pieces. We're putting back the jewel." Pokg said, receiving a cold glare from Kilt.  
Now I didn't know who's side I was supposed to be on.   
"The sorceress will find it." Kilt said.  
I was with Kilt. He was with Spink when he died, I owe him that. I would choose Kilt's side regardless of what he chose.  
"No she won't. She's dead." Geo said.  
"No she's not. We didn't kill her when we destroyed the Tryon Jewel." Kilt said.  
We were going to fight now, I felt the tension in the room sharpen again. I didn't want to fight my friends. I was going to take advantage of the granola bar now.  
"I'm kinda tired, can we resolve this tomorrow? I don't understand it completely yet." I said. It wasn't a complete lie. Pokg's snowball ki had grown stronger in the past few years, and I was really feeling it now, and I didn't understand, and I wanted to know why else Kilt erased me.  
"Let's make an agreement. No one leaves their specified rooms or kills anyone overnight. Scar and Kilt, hide the shards overnight so we won't kill you to get them." Geo said.  
I agreed. So did everyone else.   
"Okay. Scar and Pokg, in Spink's room. Me and Geo in Scar's." Pokg said.   
It didn't bother me. I had been in the same room with Kilt the past few weeks anyway. Only we had had Spink then. 


	16. Chapter 16 Questions?

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Questions??  
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I curled up under the blanket. After much debating, we "decided" that Kilt could have Spink's bed and I got the couch. Couch. Yay. And I had to fight tomorrow, too. I turned over on my back and stared at the ceiling. I didn't know what I was thinking about, but basically I was trying to remember the Jewel of Tryon. Since I had been erased by Kilt, Spink had hid my shard, and We didn't know where it was. But Pokg and Geo thought I knew, that's all that mattered.  
  
"Scar?" said Kilt. I groaned and turned to look at him.  
"Yeah?" I asked.  
"Remember when I told you there was another reason?" Kilt said.  
No duh. I nodded and turned back to stare at the ceiling. Now I was thinking of how Spink probably did that a lot. Kilt took that as a 'no', even though I nodded 'yes'.  
"I said I would tell you if we lived by nightfall," Kilt said.  
"Yeah. I remember that," I answered.  
"You remember where I said there was a way to get your memory back?" Kilt asked.  
I was getting kinda annoyed, but I hid it.   
"Not really. So much went on there." I said.  
"Oh."  
I stared at the ceiling for a while longer, anything to keep me from looking at Spink's stuff. I was on the verge of tears already. I stared hard at that ceiling. I willed it to crumble with my eyes.  
"Are you still awake?" Kilt asked.  
  
I sat up and groped for the lamp. When I found it, I turned it on and pulled myself back under the covers. It was cold. The heaters had probably been taken out by the explosion.  
"Are you alright?" Kilt asked.  
"What?"  
"Are you okay? You look like… never mind, stupid question," Kilt said, turning his back to me. A tear slid down my cheek. Why did we have to get Spink's room?  
"N-nothing's a-a stupid question," I managed to choke, roughly wiping the tear away. Kilt was silent for a minute.   
"I'm sorry, Scarlet," he said.  
"What t-the hell are you sorry about?" I said hoarsely.   
"What I did with Spink," Kilt answered. (no, you henati people. Not what you're thinking.)  
"What do you mean?" I managed.  
"With his body. I'm sorry. I didn't know where to put it," Kilt said. What did he mean? Another tear ran down my cheek. I didn't bother to brush it away this time.  
"What are you trying to say?" I asked.  
"I waited until you had fallen asleep waiting outside, and I took him to the ALR. I buried him where we found him. Then I woke you up and you didn't ask about it, so I didn't say anything," Kilt said, turning back over to check my reaction. A tear slid down my other cheek, but I didn't care. I hadn't even thought to ask about Spink's body.  
"I was so stupid," I said quietly, as several more tears ran down my cheek. Kilt was eyeing me again, but right now I didn't really care. I had been so naïve. Kilt sat up and looked at me.  
"Are you alright?" Kilt said after a moment.   
"I-I was so careless. I should have asked, or even thought about it, for that point," I said.  
"It's okay, Scarlet. I'm sure Spink wouldn't have minded. Pokg won't kill us because he thinks you know where Spink's shard is." Kilt said. Spink's shard. Hadn't thought of that one.  
"No, he would have!" said, tears now streaming down my cheeks, "I-I already let him down too much. I failed him. He didn't want me to go, anyway. I should have stayed and Pokg and Geo would never have killed him. I wouldn't have let them. But I left and I got here too late. I was so stupid," I choked in between tears.  
  
"Compassion," Kilt said, softly.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Why I erased you," Kilt said, getting out of Spink's bed and pulling on his shoes.  
"What?"  
"Come on," Kilt said, pulling me off the couch and throwing me my shoes.   
"Where are-" I started to ask before he held up a finger to my lips.  
"But we're not supposed to leave the room!" I said, finally trying to brush away tears that kept returning.  
"Just be quiet and we won't get caught," Kilt said, grabbing me by the wrist and yanking me out of Spink's room.  
He dragged me along that way to the ALR, where finally he let me talk.  
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked. He smiled at me and I returned a blank stare.  
"I want an answer," I said.   
"Spink."  
"Oh."  
  
I followed him through the forest to the small clearing where Spink was.  
"I lied," said Kilt.  
"What?" I asked, just before we came into the clearing.  
"I didn't bury him yet. We need to give him a proper burial before we're the ones needing the burial," Kilt said.  
I looked out at the body laying in the center of the clearing. I was afraid to take another step.  
"It's okay, Scar. Let's give him the best burial possible!" Kilt said, smiling at me. A fresh tear ran down my cheek. I couldn't get my mouth to work, or my body to move. Kilt seemed to understand and waited patiently for a response.  
"Quit eyeing me," I finally choked, "It makes me nervous."  
"Sorry," Kilt said, breaking his gaze and looking over at Spink.   
  
I started to cry. It wasn't like earlier, with only a tear making it's way down my cheek, I was crying. I sank to my knees and buried my face in my hands. Kilt kneeled in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. I kept crying and shrugged him off. Kilt seemed to get the picture and backed off a little. There was silence minus my quiet sobbing.   
"Do you want to remember?" Kilt finally asked, breaking the silence. I trembled and looked up at him with tears streaming down my cheeks.  
"H-how?" I choked between my sobs.  
"That doesn't matter. Do you want to remember?"  
"W-why did y-you erase me?"  
"Compassion. Do you want to remember?" Kilt asked again. I glanced over at Spink, wavy through my tear-covered eyes. Did I want to remember? I looked at Kilt who eyed me. I hated that, but I wasn't going to tell him to stop again. Kilt repeated the question, and put his hands on my shoulders again, staring deep into my eyes. I really didn't have a choice now.  
"I-I… I want t-to remember," I said.   
"Scar…"  
"I want to remember," I repeated, returning his gaze. He drew me to him and kissed me. 


	17. Chapter 17 Memories

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Memories   
--------------  
  
Reffa looked at us all intensely, stressing the last rule just as the other ones. I looked beside me at Spink, who smiled and patted me on the head. I growled and punched him softly in the arm. Mei looked across Spink to me, and we made a peace sign at each other.  
"Hello, Scar. Being amused? Any you too, Me? I'm surprised," Reffa said, glaring at us. Don't be surprised. We were restless. We were a bunch of kids.  
"This isn't nearly as bad as that spit ball Orio fired that landed on your shoe. It dried there half an hour ago," Mei said, pointing at Reffa's boot. That provoked some giggles in the row behind us. I glanced over and rolled my eyes at Frei, who shrugged and nudged Orio. Orio over dramatized and fell over, forcing Geo to move out of the way and bump into Kilt. Kilt laughed and pushed Geo away. Oops. I was the start of that one.  
  
Reffa rolled her eyes and stormed out of the room. Uh-oh. Pokg tilted back in his chair. He brought a chair. The rest of us forgot. Spink turned around and flicked Orio off. This aroused laughter from everyone. I slapped Spink on the hand and glared at him. Even more laughter.  
"You all think this is funny?" Reffa said, walking back into the room with new boots. We all straightened up and Pokg fell backwards in his chair. Mei giggled and Frei made farting noises.  
"ENOUGH! In order to teach you kids responsibility, I'm sending you on a mission!" Reffa screamed at us. We all blinked in confusion.  
  
"I'm sending you all to Tryon. I just made the plans. You all leave tomorrow," she said. I looked around. Everyone was surprised. Good Kami, we were ONLY ten, ya know! Kilt sneezed and everyone laughed.  
"That behavior will not be accepted, now go get some sleep!" demanded Reffa. We all filled out and went to our rooms. Besides what Reffa told us to do, it was a very sleepless night. I tossed and turned, but couldn't sleep. I was too exited to sleep. Eventually, Spink walked into my room and flipped on the light.  
"Chibi-nessss! Didyousleep? Icoulden't! Anyway, timetogohurryupwewillbelate!" Spink said, bouncing up and down in my doorway.  
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me chibi-ness and not to drag it out like that. I don't like being called small, because last time I checked, I was taller than you, Spinkie," I said sleepily.   
"You don't call me Spinkie and I won't call you Chibi-ness. Fair?" Spink said. I nodded and he smiled and left.  
  
"Did you all equip yourselves?" Reffa asked. She got nods, blank stares and farting noises in return. Reffa rolled her eyes and glared at Frei, who responded with an innocent look and a huge smile.  
"Anyway, the trip is only two hours, so the space pods are not necessary, and you all are going in one big ship. No one has to worry about driving, it's all been programmed in. You people do whatever necessary to destroy the sorceress and immobilize the stone. Don't any of you dare come back without that being accomplished, you hear?" she said. Okay, so if we all grow old and die on that planet, Reffa won't care. It'll be her fault. Not like that's gonna happen anyway. None of us were planning on following any more rules than necessary. Reffa kept droning on about what to do and not to do right up until the point where the door to the ship closed.  
  
I flew down the trapdoor out into the atmosphere. I breathed heavily, thankful for the fresh air compared to the stuffy ship. I looked around, everyone was having fun and stretching their muscles. Nothing like a little energy to keep you going on a mission. Not like any of us had been on a mission before. It was obvious after the two hours who had assumed which roles in our group. And seeing everyone out in the open like that made it even more obvious. Pokg and Kilt were bent over some papers and arguing about something, Orio was out somewhere trying to find wood and water, Frei and Geo were sparring, and Mei was riding around on Spink's shoulders waving to everyone. And I just stood there looking at everyone. Boy, I'm helpful. I didn't really know what to do, either. Three people sparring would be too much, Orio was already gone, Mei and Spink wouldn't want me tagging along with them, and it would be dangerous to go and bother Kilt and Pokg when they were fighting. I sat down and started cleaning my sword, there was nothing else to do.  
  
"You are positively awesome, Mei. This is great!" Frei said, between big spoonfuls of the soup/mush combo.  
"Yeah! It's great!" echoed everyone else, me included. We all erupted into laugher as Mei stood up and took a big curtsy, with a big cocky smile on her face. I stared into the fire, thinking about nothing and slowly eating. I had never been on a real planet before. It felt amazing. We were experiencing real gravity and a real atmosphere.  
"Hey, Scar? You gonna eat the rest of that? Mei just ran out and I'm still hungry," Kilt asked.  
I jabbed him in the ribs, shook my head ferociously and quickly ate the rest of my mush before anyone else could ask me. Kilt looked at me, pretending to be hurt by the fact I didn't give him my soup. I stuck my tongue out at him and winked.  
"Attention, everyone," Pokg said, standing up and glancing at everyone's faces.  
"Tomorrow we shall embark-" he started to say.  
"Shut up and talk like a real person!" we all shouted at him before erupting into laughter.  
"Yeah. Tomorrow we're gonna go kill the sorcer-whatever person, so everyone needs to-"  
"Hey! I thought we agreed on destroying the jewel first!" Kilt said, standing up and facing Pokg.  
"So? We have to kill the sorceress!" Pokg said.  
"If we destroy the jewel first, the sorceress won't be able to defend herself!" Kilt screamed.  
"But we need to kill her to get to the jewel! The we can take the jewel back to the OP for them to destroy!" Pokg screamed back.  
  
That was how the teams split. Before we knew it, everyone had chosen sides and the teams went their separate ways. We were in a fight to see who could accomplish what they set out to do first.   
"So, today we do what?" Spink asked.  
"Yeah, are we going to destroy the rock now?" Geo said, exaggerating.  
"Not today. Pokg's group will keep the sorceress occupied for a while. Let's assign jobs so we can stay on our toes today," Kilt answered. Natural leader emerges. Bastard.  
"So what do I get to do?" Mei asked, looking up from the pot she was mixing something in.  
"Mei, you'll cook," Kilt answered, "Spink, you're navigator, Geo, you're attack coordinator, Scar, you'll be lookout, and I'll be director."  
"Navigator doesn't sound very fun," Spink complained.  
"No, but it's very important. We have to know where the ship is and where we are on the planet, and you like geography class. It's the same thing," Kilt answered.  
"So, when do we get to work?" Geo asked.  
"Mei's already working. She has a job that's important to all of us. When's lunch?" I said.  
"Take this seriously, Scar, please?" Kilt said. I kinda felt sorry for him.  
  
"She moved about fifty miles to the east, it'll take us about a half hour to catch up and be far enough away to be safe," Spink reported, twirling around in the air. I looked out over the vast land below us.   
"That's great. Thanks Spink!" Kilt said.  
"Error, this is bad. Let's move. Now!" I said. Kilt looked at me, then to where I was looking. The smell of the other group's fire was suffocating way up high where we were after a minute of silence.  
"We should go, before they see us," said Kilt.  
"Well, duh. I said that two minutes ago," I refreshed. Kilt looked up at me and flew up to my elevation.  
"Okay, then. Spink said, that way. Come on, everyone!" Kilt said, eyeing me. I glared at him as he flew off.  
  
"The sorceress uses the rock like a laser and magically. She has destroyed three villages wishing the past few minutes we've been gone," I reported back to Kilt. He rubbed his temple and looked out over to Geo, who was drawing attack plays in the mud with a stick.  
"This isn't right. We're kids. We're only ten years old. We're not supposed to be doing this, not alone, not like this," Kilt said.  
"Are you okay?" I asked.  
"No. We aren't supposed to do this. Hey, Geo!" Kilt called. Geo turned around and smiled.  
"We're going in tonight! Have something ready! You have two hours!" Kilt said. I didn't say anything. Geo nodded and turned back around to draw in the mud more.  
"We're just going to get it over with," Kilt said.  
"And one more piece of info, you might need, I have," I said, looking at him.  
"Yeah?" he asked, taking his hand off his forehead and looking at me.  
"I saw the other group try. They didn't succeed," I said. Kilt looked at me.  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
"I just did," I answered.   
  
We went. We destroyed. We gather pieces, and run. We inform other group. We pack up.   
  
I put down my bowl of soup and forced myself to smile at Mei. I wasn't in the mood for smiling. I was about opposite. Spink glared at me.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Why did you hurt Geo? He didn't do nothing to you?" Spink asked. I was quiet.  
"Well?"  
"There's, there's a realm for the stone. The stone has kept Tryon like this for so long. Population and plants controlled and equal. We should have just returned it to the realm and sealed it inside," I said.  
"But why hurt Geo?" Spink asked.  
"I didn't mean to…. kill him… I just was… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Spink," I said, a tear making it's way down my cheek. No one said anything. We all just fingered our shard and stared at the ground.  
"He's not dead," said Kilt, coming out from the tent and sitting down next to me, "not yet. We need to go back to the OP tomorrow. I already contacted Pokg about it."  
  
Mei, Spink, Frei, Orio, Pokg, and Geo were asleep. I leaned up against the wall listening to the hum of the ship and the various snored that occasionally broke out. This ride would be longer, because the OP had moved farther from Tryon during our stay. We had only been there for two weeks, but the ride had lengthened to seven hours. Kilt was attending Geo, making sure he stayed alive, I just couldn't sleep, hadn't last night either. Kilt turned around and stared at me.  
"What?" I croaked.  
"I can't let you live like this," Kilt said.  
"Kill me and get it over with. You know you want to," I said.  
"That's not what I meant," Kilt said, walking over and sitting in front of me.  
"What did you mean, then?" I asked.  
"I'm going to erase you," Kilt said.  
"You can erase?" I asked.  
"Yeah. But you don't have a choice. I'm doing this for your own good," Kilt said, placing his finger on my forehead. 


	18. Chapter 18 Scarlet Eyes

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Scarlet Eyes  
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I jerked up and panted. I moaned and put my head in my hands.  
"Did it hurt?" Kilt asked, turning around from whatever he was doing.  
"W-what?" I asked, looking up.  
"Remembering. Does it hurt? I never unblocked anyone before. You were kinda out for three days," Kilt said, walking over and handing me a glass of water.  
"No. I don't think it hurt. What'd you people do for three days anyway?" I asked, gladly accepting the glass of water.  
"Well, first, we decided to put the fight off until you got back up. But it's pretty late now, probably start again tomorrow. Then, we switched rooms, then we stayed in here for the rest of the time, free to go and return at please. No rules against leaving this time. I went yesterday and buried Spink. Not lying this time," Kilt said, a smile on his face.  
"What's so funny?" I asked, gulping the water.  
"Nothing. Do you remember now?" Kilt asked, walking away back to whatever he had been doing.  
  
I looked around. He was right, we were in my room now. Well, of course he was right, he had been there when we had traded rooms. He also buried Spink, if he wasn't lying again, which I doubted.  
"Yeah. I remember. But why the clue you gave me? It still makes no sense," I said.  
"Sorry. I guess I just wasn't very into telling you. I wasn't even planning on having you remember when I came up with what to say. I figured you would probably ask that when you got up," Kilt said.   
"Get to the point," I said, fiddling with the empty glass. He was quiet for a minute.   
"Scar, I still really don't know what to say…" Kilt said.  
"Try. Please? Why 'compassion'?" I asked. Kilt turned around and eyed me.  
"And why do you care?" he said.  
"Because I had two weeks worth of my memory erased and I want to know why other than that I would have taken over the universe. Now try, and quit doing that, I hate it," I said, returning the stare, just to get on his nerves. Kilt was unaffected by it and didn't break his gaze.  
"I-I guess I just didn't want you to live with the fact of almost killing someone. I've heard about a person trying to cope with that. She ended up…" Kilt stopped and looked down, "Scar, I'm sorry. I just… I don't know. Sorry I mentioned it. I just didn't want you to be that way. They sent Geo to a different OP for his safety, you would have thought he was dead, that you had killed him, and… I guess I just didn't want you to live like that. I erased you out of compassion for your own safety."  
  
There was silence. Kilt looked at me expectantly, but I didn't say anything. The silence stood. It crashed in around me and I could hear everything, but there was nothing to hear. My ears started to ring. In order to break the silence I came up with a question, a stupid question, but a sound, none the less.  
"Was that de-erasing me?" I asked.   
"What was?"  
"The-"  
"Kiss? Yeah. Kinda like a fairytale. To wake up the beautiful sleeping princess, she must be kissed by the handsome prince. Not to say you're any type of princess, never the less pretty-" Kilt started.  
"Yeah? And like you're a handsome prince? Kill me," I said sarcastically.  
"Yesh. It was a metaphor. Don't get all riled up. But I am I not the biggest bishoen you've ever seen?" Kilt said, crossing his arms over his chest and winking.  
"Hell, no. More like the biggest bastard I've ever seen," I said. Kilt laughed. It was kinda funny.  
  
"Scar?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I was joking."  
"Joking about what?"  
"What I said after my metaphor. Sorry. Must have sounded kinda mean."  
"Thank you. You're not really the biggest bastard ever."  
"Really?"  
"Yep."  
"Thanks."  
"Whatever."  
  
Conversation went kinda like that for the next few minutes. When the talking died down, Kilt eventually left to tell Geo and Pokg I was conscious again. I sat on the bed, thinking. I hadn't been able to bury Spink with Kilt. Instead, I broke down and couldn't move. Then I had to play sleeping beauty and snow white* for three days. Kilt was acting kind of strange. He wasn't telling me something, and I hated it. I pondered these things alone until Kilt came back with Geo and Pokg.  
  
"So, finally woke up, I see?" Geo said.  
"Obviously," I answered.  
"Kilt told us he unblocked you, and that's why you were out. Was that true?" Pokg asked.  
"Why wouldn't it be?" I asked.  
"Just making sure he didn't give you a whole bottle of sleeping pills or something to get out of fighting us," Geo said. I saw Pokg glare at him.  
"No pills. Plus, a whole bottle would be like an OD and would kill me. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to fight alone," I said. Geo nodded and exchanged a quick glance with Pokg. I didn't like how this was going so far.   
"Do feel alright, Scar?" Pokg asked.  
"Yes. I'm fine," I answered. Nobody said anything. Finally, Pokg turned to leave and Geo followed him.  
  
"What was that all about?" I asked when Kilt closed the door. Kilt turned around and eyed me.  
"Well?" I asked.  
"You've got blood running from your left eye," Kilt said. I jumped up and ran to the mirror. He was right. My left eye was glazed over and there was blood making it's way down my cheek from the corner. I grabbed my shirt tail and brushed the blood away. I closed my right eye and kept my left open. I couldn't see from it. I turned around to look at Kilt, who was staring at me.  
"I-I…I c-can't see… through it…" I whimpered. How had I not noticed it?  
"How long has it been doing that?" I asked.   
"Started in between when I left and when I came back," Kilt whispered, kneeling in front of me and staring at my eye.  
"I-is it bad?" I managed to croak. Kilt didn't answer, just grabbed my chin and pulled my head closer so he could examine my eye better. I asked again.  
"S-Scar… I really don't know. Can you feel it?" Kilt managed to whisper.  
"N-no. I-I would have n-noticed if I had felt any pain," I croaked.  
"It… it looks like it's bleeding from behind. I can't see anything," Kilt said, pulling me closer and staring at my eye. I felt the blood flow down my cheek like a tear, but I kept myself from crying. I had to let Kilt have the best look at it possible. Kilt rubbed the blood-tear away with the back of his hand and continued staring at my eye.   
  
After a moment, Kilt got up and found some rolls of long cloth bandages. He wiped the blood away again and started binding up my eye.   
"I don't know if this will help, but it's a bandage and I don't know what else to do," he said.  
"I-I don't know why my eye…" I dragged off into silence. We didn't say anything until Kilt was done with the bandage.  
"It-it's okay, Scar," Kilt said, pulling me to him and hugging me. It was strange, being in his arms like that. I think it was rather for his comfort other than mine. He held on to me and cried. I wasn't going to ask any questions. His body heaved with his sobs and I clung to the front of his shirt.  
"I-I'll be alright," I said, a tear finally sliding from my good eye. He tightened his grip around me.  
"M-maybe. I just d-don't want you to die," Kilt said. That's what Spink said before I left. Spink was dead because I left. I buried my face in Kilt's shoulder.  
"I won't die. I promise. I'll keep it. I won't bleed to death," I said quietly. Kilt looked down at me.  
"Don't die," he said, as a tear landed on the top of my head.  
Authors Notes: Ewwww… I wasn't really planning on putting Scar and Kilt in a situation like the one they were just in. Nope. Wasn't even gonna have them end up together. Oh well. Nice couple, ne?   
*I don't own Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. And proud of it. 


	19. Chapter 19 Confrontations

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Confrontations  
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I unwrapped the bandage and Kilt studied my eye again.  
"Well, at least it stopped bleeding. Can you see from it?" he asked.  
"No," I replied bluntly.  
"It looks strange. I really don't know if you'll ever be able to see out of it again," Kilt said.  
"Oh."  
"I didn't need to tell you that, right?"  
"Mm-hmm."  
"You okay?"  
"Yeah."  
"Want me to rebind it?" Kilt asked.  
"No. I'm okay."  
"Are you sure you're okay?"  
"Yes," I answered, kind of annoyed now.  
"Positive?" asked Kilt. I spun around, pulling my sword from it's hilt and pointed it at his nose.  
"I'm fine," I answered. Kilt held up his hands and winced. I smiled smartly and resheathed my sword.   
  
I pulled up my hair and changed into some fresh clothes. I had been in the same clothes since we first left the OP, and boy, they were dirty. My hair was really tangled too, but not bad enough I had to spend more than two minutes on it, it was just going to get tangled today again, anyway. Same with the clothes, but I still needed to change those. Kilt knocked, opened the door, and stuck his head in.  
  
"Scar! Come on already! What the hell's taking you so long?" he said.  
"Yesh. I'm a girl and I've only been in here six minutes! Six! Not even ten! Bastard…" I said.   
"Good point," he nodded and left.  
"Wait," I said. He stuck his head back in.  
"Yeah, Scar?" he asked.  
"Why are you so anxious to fight?" I asked.  
"Because it's a fight. It may have been your fight, but now it's mine, too. I just wanna kick that son of a gun's ass to Timbuktu," Kilt smiled.  
"Timbuktu is in Africa, and I don't think that's how you spell it… I take it you're talking about Pokg?" I said, binding up my eye with the bandages.   
"Yep. Hey, need help with that? You've got it crooked," Kilt said. I rolled my eye.  
"Sure, whatever satisfies you so you can quit bugging me," I said as Kilt walked over and undid what I had badly accomplished.  
"I'm not really bugging you… am I?" asked Kilt.  
"Maybe," I answered, not wanting to hurt his feelings, but he was kind of bugging me.  
"Sorry," he said quietly after a moment.  
"That's okay. I'll get over it," I said.  
"You better. If we live through today, we're going to Youshey. I finished off the programming two days ago and erased all the data off the OP supercomputer and just left the info on our pods so if Pokg and Geo are still live, they can't track us," Kilt said, perking up a little.  
"If you weren't a bastard, I'd name you a genius, Kilt," I said, wincing as he finished the bandage and tightened it.  
"Was that supposed to be a complement or was that supposed to be mean?" Kilt asked.  
"Compliment," I answered happily.  
  
"Well, thank you, I guess. I'll be outside if you need me," Kilt said, making his way to the door.  
"Thanks for doing my eye," I said. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at me.  
"Your welcome. It's beginning to reflect your name," he said, turning back around and walking to the door again.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.  
"Don't take the bandage off," Kilt called over his shoulder as he closed the door behind him. I didn't know what he meant by that, but I didn't have time to worry about that. I had to fight today.   
  
I flew at warp speed into the ALR and landed next to Kilt and withdrew my sword.  
"About time. We've been waiting for you for five minutes," Pokg said, standing up and withdrawing his sword.  
"Shesh, I'm only 5 minutes late. It's not the end of the world. And this is a fight, who has to play by the rules?" I asked as Kilt hoisted himself off the ground and unsheathed my old sword.  
"Good point. What's the bandage for?" Geo asked, not looking like he was going to fight anytime soon.  
"Long story," Kilt answered for me, glancing at me and smiling before putting on a game face and staring at his opponent, Pokg. That left me with someone who wasn't guarding or prepared for an attack. It was a gimme.  
"We have the time," Geo said, fiddling with a flower he picked from beside his foot. What kind of fighter was this, anyway?  
"No. Fight now. One rule we must abide. We do not kill our opponent if they beg for mercy and give you what you want," I said. That would give us a better chance to be alive to escape to Youshey after the battle.  
"If you weren't a bastard, I'd name you a genius," quoted Kilt.  
"Thanks," I whispered back.  
  
I didn't strike first. Pokg did. Not at Kilt, but at me. He missed on purpose, but managed to cut of the bandage that fell to my foot in a heap of cloth. I blinked from surprise and spun back to be parallel with Pokg. He had seen this coming and I had only managed to place a small gash in his right arm. Kilt reacted faster than I did and manages to shoot a small ki blast into Pokg's left cheek. Pokg wasn't hurt, but from the way he stood after that hinted he was in pain. Just as I formed a ki, I was struck in the back by Geo's elbow. I had completely forgotten about Geo. I collapsed to the ground forwards and quickly turned over and shot a ki blindly. I heard Geo scream shortly in pain before I found myself staring at a sword point.   
  
"Okay, girl. I'm in the perfect position to kill you. Where's your shard?" Pokg said, gripping the sword hilt tensely and spinning the point above my brow. I didn't say anything, just stared at the point twirling above me with my good eye. Pokg had a good reaction time, if I made one smallest move, he would kill me in one tenth of a second.  
"Scar. Tell me where it is, or you'll die in ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five-" Pokg flew into a tree on the rim of the forest. Kilt had flew in sideways and kicked Pokg in the head. Inertia did the rest.  
"Thanks, Kilt. Thought I wouldn't get to live another five seconds there for a minute," I said, hauling myself off the ground.  
"Behind you," Kilt said. I spun around in time to block a green ki from Geo and comeback with a ki of my own. Geo zankoked behind me and got me in headlock. I jammed my head backwards into his, and stomped his foot. He grimaced but didn't weaken his grip. I finally raised my foot and kicked him between the legs. When he let go, I didn't give him any time, I spun around and punched him in the nose. Geo keeled over in pain, clutching his nose and… yeah. I glanced over at Kilt and Pokg. They were fast. If I could get rid of this little baby I could join Kilt against Pokg. I formed a ki blast in front of my outstretched hands and aimed at Geo. One, two… I couldn't do it. If I did Kilt might erase me again. As strange as it may seem, I didn't want any of this to be erased.  
  
"Kill me," Geo choked.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Kill me. You know you want to kill me. Just do it. I want to die," Geo said, crying.  
"No," I said.  
"Kill me!" Geo said.  
"Why should I? You don't deserve to live, but I'm not gonna kill you," I said.  
"Kill me. You don't know the ridicule I've been through, having to be sent to another OP. And then I come back, and you were erased. You remembered none of it. You have no idea how much shame that is," Geo sobbed.  
"I have no mercy for you. So, I'm not going to kill you, no matter how much you beg," I said. Geo stopped crying and looked up at me, grimacing.  
"Fine. If you won't kill me, I will," he said, grabbing my sword (that was behind him) and shoving it through his gut.  
"Y-you s-should have j-just killed m-me," Geo whispered in pain, before he fell in a heap to the ground, dead. I just looked at him in horror. I was too shocked to breathe. 


	20. Chapter 20 So Many Things

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So Many Things  
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I had to pull myself together. I couldn't. I don't think I was registering what I just saw. Was that a suicide, or did I kill him? What had happened? I fell to my knees and stared.  
  
Kilt flew past me due to a punch from Pokg. He turned a 360 in the air and halted about a yard behind me.   
"What happened, Scar? You look kinda pale," Kilt said, taking on a series of punched and kicks from Pokg, who had caught up. I shook my head and spun around on my knees. Kilt and Pokg avoided me in their raging battle. They were going so fast, I didn't bother to try to see what was happening.   
"G-Geo… k-killed… himself…" I choked. Kilt and Pokg halted in mid kick and block. Kilt went down from Super and Pokg followed suit. Their gazes drifted behind me to Geo, who was curled in a circle of pain, gripping the handle of my sword tightly still, stiff and dead.  
"Scar… you did that to him?" Pokg said. I whipped around defiantly.  
"NO! He did it to himself! I didn't kill him! I refused to! He killed himself! I didn't!" I screamed. Kilt flew down, grabbed my shoulders, and shook me.  
"It's okay, Scar. Everything's going to be okay. Don't freak on me. Not now. You've got to help me fight him. I can't do it alone. Please, Scar, please, please don't freak," Kilt said, shaking me harder. I nodded. I couldn't dwell on Geo forever, hell, I barely even knew the guy. Now was as good as time as ever to get over it.  
  
"O-okay. I'm okay. Really. I won't let you down, I promise. I won't die, either," I said quietly.  
"Thanks," Kilt said, smiling and hugging me, "thanks. You're okay, now lets kick the shit out of Pokg. Okay?"  
"How touching. You guys going to fight me or not?" Pokg challenged. I slowly tore myself away from Kilt's grasp and hauled myself up.  
'I'll fight," I said, going Super. Kilt stood beside me and went Super too.  
"Okay then," nodded Pokg in consent and went Super also. We all stood (flew in Pokg's case) where we were, waiting impatiently for the opponent to strike. I went first. I formed a small but powerful ki behind my back and fired it at Pokg. Pokg expertly blocked it and threw it to the side where it hit the skirt of the forest. Kilt went in directly. A series of kicks and punches to the head. Pokg blocked most of them. Before he knew it, we were back to waiting for someone to move.  
"Ha! Neither of you did any damage. You're hopeless! You can't do any damage to me!" Pokg said. I heard Kilt curse under his breath.  
"Let's work together, okay?" I whispered. Kilt turned to me and nodded.  
  
"So? Which one of you is going to die first?" Pokg asked. I glared at him.   
"Bastard. Neither of us are going to die, you are," Kilt said, glancing at me. I nodded. We flew around to opposite sides of Pokg and then to him. I fired series of ki blasts, punches, and kicks. I didn't concentrate on what Kilt was doing, but I assumed he was doing the same. Pokg blocked most of my physical attacks, but wasn't fast enough for the additional ki blasts. Finally, Pokg escaped from us and we were all back to staring and waiting.  
  
"Scar, beside you!" Kilt screamed at me. I glanced around.  
"Where? I can't see him!" I said, frantically. Next, I found myself slammed into a tree getting punched in the stomach.   
"Does the little Scar have a weakness?" Pokg taunted. I didn't know what he was talking about, I just set my mind to endure the punches. I screamed in pain as he punched me in the nose. I felt some blood trickle from it. Pokg didn't have mercy. He kept punching me in the abdomen until I was almost limp with pain. I managed a small ki blast from my hand. It knocked him back a little. Enough so I could escape. I held my side in pain, interlocking eyes with Pokg, ready for his next move. I wouldn't be caught off guard this time. But it was Kilt who made the next move.  
  
He flew in bearing a generous ki blast between his hands and slammed it into Pokg's face. I sunk to the ground to regain my energy. Pokg and Kilt were good. I didn't amount up. I probably could have. Geo said that my reason to fight was dead. I wasn't as strong as I used to be. Maybe that was true. Maybe my whole will for everything was dead. No. I still had something to fight for. Youshey. I had to make it to Youshey. But why? Why did I have to fight for Youshey? Kilt flew in beside me and grimaced.   
"Well, not as I expected. He found out about your eye," Kilt said, watching Pokg power up.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Your left eye. You can't see through it. He snuck up beside you on your left and you couldn't see him," Kilt said, turning to look at me. I pulled myself off the ground and grimaced as the sharp pain in my stomach became more brave.  
"Remember what I said about your eye and your name and you'll probably never see through it again?" Kilt asked, looking back to Pokg.  
"Yeah. Why did you say that?" I asked.  
"It was just I comment I thought you should know. Makes you look pretty scary. Your eye had not been bleeding from behind, it had from the inside. It turned your iris and pupil reddish brown, some of it is sinking into the white parts," Kilt said. I stared at him.  
"What the hell?" I asked.  
"Yeah. Your eye is turning scarlet, Scarlet," Kilt laughed.  
"Yeah. I'm glad you can laugh at me before we both die," I said.  
"You promised you wouldn't die," Kilt said, smiling still from his joke.  
  
"Yeah, the second time I've made that promise to somebody," I said.  
"Don't give up. You have so much to avenge for. Your friends, Spink, your parents, everything. You have things to fight for, for the future too. Like Youshey, our new home, and so many things we don't know about yet. You can't give up. This guy killed your brother, make him pay for it, okay?" Kilt said. That was an order. But there was no more time left to talk. Now we had to fight.  
"Good luck," I said as Pokg charged at us, flying full speed.  
  
I blocked the inertia-powered punch from Pokg and the snowball ki that followed. Kilt joined in and it was chaos. Feet and fists and ki flying everywhere. I powered up, powered by (AA batteries) my longing to avenge Spink. I received a few ki blasts and physical attacks from Pokg in the first few seconds. I couldn't last too much longer. Pokg had an advantage over me. Pokg always had the advantage. Me fighting him was fire against water. No point in it. I could do damage before he got to me, raging and torrent flames, but once he started to be on offense instead of defense, I was quickly running out of energy. I slammed into another tree. I waited for the punches, but they never came. I opened my eyes to see Pokg and Kilt fighting. There was a match up. Pokg could block everything Kilt threw at him, and Kilt could block everything Pokg threw at him. I watched painfully out of my good eye as they fought. I regained some energy and joined again, as Kilt dropped out in exhaustion. Pokg was still in pretty good shape for fighting nonstop. I was smashed into the ground. I couldn't find the energy to push myself back up. I felt a foot rest on my back. 


	21. Chapter 21 Many Promises Kept

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Many Promises Kept  
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I couldn't find the energy to say anything. I couldn't beg for mercy and promise Pokg my shard. That's what I wanted to do. I was dizzy with pain and I could barely open my eye. Might as well have been killed by the Mio. I didn't want to die under Pokg's foot, not suffering like that, not so disgraceful. I understood Geo now. Disgrace and humiliation. I didn't care, though. I wanted to give up and die right then, not suspend the tension with a foot on my back, knowing exactly how I was going to die.  
  
I couldn't die. I promised two too many people that I wouldn't die. I had to stay alive for who was alive. Right now my fate rested upon, not me, but Pokg and Kilt. I had no choice as to live or die, I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, I could only hope in dizzy hallucinating thoughts that circled my head, protecting me from the registry of pain. I could hear. Hearing was solid. But I didn't want to hear. I didn't want to hear my bones crack that announced my death seconds before I died. I didn't want to be able to hear that. My fate was left in Pokg and Kilt's hands. I promised Kilt I wouldn't die. I promised Spink I wouldn't die. But now it was Kilt who had to reassure that for me and help me keep the promise I made to him.  
  
"Another step and Scar dies," Pokg warned. Kilt growled.  
"You don't want to kill Scar. You don't want to kill anybody," Kilt said.  
"I'll kill her, that I will, if you take another step," Pokg threatened.  
"Remember what she said before the fight began? The rule?" Kilt said.  
"Yes. How unprideful," Pokg said.  
"Please don't kill her. I'll give you my shard if you don't kill her, please, please, don't kill Scar," Kilt pleaded.  
"But then how will I get the other two shards?" Pokg asked.  
"By fighting tomorrow, after she's healed. Please don't kill her!" Kilt screamed.  
"You must give me your shard first. You have ten minutes," Pokg said.  
"You must swear not to kill her!" Kilt said.  
"I swear not to kill Scar," Pokg said, "You have ten minutes starting now."  
I felt his foot press down into my spine. I gasped in pain silently. I heard some ruffling noises.  
"Here, now let her go and we'll fight tomorrow!" said Kilt.  
  
I felt the foot move away from my back. I was relieved and I relaxed a little, the pain was beginning to register in my brain. My whole body hurt. I felt Kilt turn me over and sit me up. He shook me gently.  
"Scar, are you okay?" he whispered. I couldn't move, or make a noise to answer. He pulled me to his chest.  
"Scar, I'm sorry," he said. I wished I could have answered him.   
"I didn't mean for this to happen. Youshey is waiting. Let's heal you up first," Kilt whispered softly. He slid his arm under my knees and picked me up. I didn't think my arm was twisting in the right direction, but I didn't care, I was in so much pain. I let Kilt carry me back to my room and put me in the bed before I went unconscious.   
  
I should have been stronger, I could have been stronger. We could have beaten him. I stared at the ceiling. Kilt was asleep sitting by the bed, his head resting on the edge. I still couldn't move, but I could use my good eye. I didn't know if I could talk, but I didn't want to wake up Kilt any earlier than I thought necessary. I had been unconscious for about two hours or so, and woke up to find me in the state I was in. Bruised, and bandages with blood soaking through already. I stared at the ceiling and cried. I almost let Spink down again. I almost died. I had looked death in the eyes and then survived. I could still feel Pokg's foot on my back, pressing, as if it were still happening.  
  
Kilt woke up and looked around, startled. He cursed Pokg under his breath and stood up, stretching and checking two or three bandages on his arms. He turned around and looked at me. For a second he seemed thrilled to see me looking straight back at him with the same expression. Pain.  
"Scar…" he whispered, "we've got to escape to Youshey tonight. We can't live if we stay any longer. We can't take anything other than what I already packed into the pods when I finished the programming. Can you move?" I swallowed and tried my fingers. Sharp pain ran up my arms and I winced.  
"N-no," I tried. It came out hoarsely, but understandable. Kilt nodded.  
"Don't try to move or talk. I'll help heal you when we get to Youshey. Right now, we go. Everything is ready. We've got to go now. We'll die if we stay any longer. Understood?" he said. I grunted, that was all that I could manage. Kilt nodded and Pulled me onto his back.  
  
I rode piggy-back style on him halfway to the launch area, where he ended up having to carry me instead. I should have been able to walk. I was just putting more stress on Kilt's wounds, and I knew it. I made him put me down and just support me eventually. Each step sent a thrill of pain through my body, but I kept going with Kilt's help. Finally, we made it and I managed to get myself in the pod and press the launch buttons that Kilt had told me to press. I drifted back out of consciousness before the pod even took off. I was still alive. Barely, but I was alive, and I had managed to keep my promises. I didn't know for how long that would be a true statement, but for the time being, my promise was unbroken. 


	22. Chapter 22 Youshey and a Tide

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Youshey And A Tide  
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I moaned and rolled over. It took a minute to register, but there wasn't pain, just stiffness and aches. I rolled over again, falling off whatever I had been on to the floor. Except it wasn't a floor. I opened my eyes and pushed myself up of the ground.  
"Sand," I said to myself quietly. Nice. We had made it to Youshey. I looked around. My makeshift bed had been a bunch of sticks tied together with some vines and the mattress was hay, about one foot off the ground, I hadn't fallen too far. The walls were same makeshift as my bed, branches and vines, with leaves for a roof. One corner was a tree that must have made it easier to build the walls, some random objects and coconuts and some plants I've never seen rested at it's base. And in another corner was my pod that must have been serving the same purpose, the door was facing inside. This was exactly like a room, place to sleep, and places to keep your stuff. I stood up and took in my surroundings a little more before Kilt appeared at the door.  
  
"Good morning… well, really good afternoon, but you just woke up, so good morning. Like it? Only took me two hours," he said, smiling and making a peace sign. Kilt was wearing a pair of shorts and a hat. He was nicely tanned, too. I rolled my eye.  
"This did not take you only two hours," I said.  
"Yes it did. You pod landed by the tree like that and the forest is over behind that wall, about seven steps. The ocean is behind me, about fourty steps," Kilt said, looking rather pleased.  
"Nice," I complemented. He laughed and threw me piece of a coconut.  
"That'll give you something to chew on for a while. You have no clue how hard those things are to eat. Not hard to break open, but impossible to eat," Kilt warned as I attempted a big bite and winced in pain when it didn't break off.   
"Then how the hell do you eat it?" I asked stubbornly.  
"No cussing on Youshey, okay? You don't eat it. It's impossible. The only thing good about them is the juice. That's what you've sustained on the past two days. You are an impossible person to get to swallow, you know?" Kilt said. I laughed and threw the piece of coconut behind me.  
"Thanks," I said. Kilt nodded.  
"Well, yeah. I have been the nicest person ever! Well… once I got better. We've been here for… err…" Kilt held up his fingers for a second, "four days."  
"Four days and you fed me for the last two? Nicest person ever?" I said. Kilt put on his best face to look hurt.  
"But I needed to heal, too. I had this big gash on my arm, I don't know when I got that, and I apparently lost lots of blood because I was kinda delirious," Kilt said, half laughing, and then holding up his arm to show a big scab running from the shoulder to elbow.  
"Obviously. Nice tan," I said.  
"Thanks!" Kilt laughed and walked away. I shook my head and walked outside to check Youshey out.   
  
Kilt must have had lots of time on his hands, either that or he was good at making stuff. There was another house-bungalow thingy an few yards away from mine, a place for a campfire, a rack with fish and some fruits drying out on it, a few sandcastles here and there, and a pile of shells by the drying rack. Kilt was down my the edge of the sea, skipping rocks and shells and such. There was a small cluster of coconut trees between my bungalow and the ocean, about three or four trees, they had obviously been the main source of food before the fish, which looked pretty fresh. After a survey of the camp and where everything was and what was used for everything, I walked back inside my house. House, I guess. It seemed like I could call it that. It was my new home, obviously, and it didn't look like I was going to move anytime soon, so I guess I could call it my house. I changed into a bathing suit and made my way out to where the waves stop and go back to the sea. Kilt glanced over at me and smiled.  
  
"Nice to see you're into this too!' he called.  
"Well, if I wasn't we would be somewhere else, right?" I yelled back. Kilt ran over.  
"Exactly," he said. I shook my head delightedly, and started to make my way into the waves. The farther out I went, the harder the waves came down, I was trying to get to the part before the waves started breaking, so I could swim. Finally, a wave broke on me, tearing me under and starting to sweep me back to shore. Kilt grabbed my wrist and pulled me up and out of the current. I sputtered and took a deep breath.   
"Thanks," I said, finally regaining my whereabouts.   
"No problem, just pay more attention and be faster. Happened to me the first day I was better, too. I ended up flying out there. It's just plain easier," Kilt said, turning his back to a wave and braced himself against it.  
"What a good idea. Didn't occur to me," I said, lifting out of the water before the wave could get to me. Kilt laughed and joined me in the air. We flew past where the waves broke and I dove deep into the water. I came up and laughed, suddenly feeling a little weaker, having used my regained energy to fly out here.  
"What's so funny?" Kilt asked.  
"My eye burns. I completely forgot this was salt water!" I said, laughing. After a second Kilt joined in too.  
"You should really be careful and make sure you don't irritate that eye more than necessary. I don't want you losing that one too, that would be a pain in the ass," he laughed.  
"I thought you said no cussing on Youshey," I said, turning on my back and floating in the water.  
"Never mind, then," Kilt said, taking a breath and disappearing under the water. I rubbed my eye and stared at the blue sky with marshmallow clouds floating across it. It must be like this everyday on Youshey. I hope we wouldn't get sun burnt.  
  
I leaned up against the tree trunk, staring at the sunset with my good eye. I never knew what my other eye was doing, but it didn't seem to bother Kilt, so I wasn't very concerned. I still had one eye, that's all that mattered. I could see, and I was very much alive. The cool wind whipped my hair around my face and I had a hard time keeping it out of my range of view. The sunset was beautiful.  
"Amazing, isn't it?" Kilt said, appearing beside me from nowhere, or maybe he had been there the whole time. I looked up at the sky then back to the sunset again.  
"Amazing isn't the word. It's implausible," I said.  
"Yeah, but my vocabulary isn't that extensive," Kilt said, raising a hand and brushing some of my wild hair from my cheek to behind my ear.  
"Thanks," I said. Kilt smiled. I looked away to the sunset, taking in every ounce of it's awe-striking beauty.  
  
Neither of us said anything, a wonder of nature like that doesn't need to be interrupted, it was like an unspoken rule we knew deep down in our souls. When the last visible piece of the sun dropped from view, Kilt turned away.  
"You might want to go change. It gets really cold and the water comes up to about a yard from where you're standing," he said, walking away. I glanced back over to the ocean, where the last thread of light was still visible on the horizon. Kilt was right, the air was already becoming cooler than before, I shivered and started walking back to my house.  
  
"Can you throw me that fish on the top, there, please?" Kilt asked, sitting beside a small fire, as I walked past the rack. I unhooked it and chucked it to him.  
"Thanks. Now one of those coconuts beside the rack," he said. I rolled my eye and picked that up and threw it to him harshly. He caught it and cracked it over the fish, which was now frying nicely in a pan over the fire. The lush juice inside spilled out over the fish and sizzled.  
"Yay! Thanks, Scar, now go change before you freeze your ass off," he said, beaming. I shook my head and ran to my house. I pulled a pair of pants and a t-shirt over my two-piece and went back outside.  
"So, what kind of fish is that?" I asked, plopping down in front of the now bigger fire beside Kilt.   
"Don't know. I'm not even sure if it's eatable yet, but hopefully more substantial than the damned coconuts," he answered, sprinkling pieces of some of the fruits I saw earlier onto the fish.  
"This could have been the best day of my life," I whispered after a minute. Kilt looked up from the fish at me.  
"Really?" he asked.  
"Yeah. Thank you," I said.  
"What else would you like on the fish?" Kilt asked, looking back to it on the fire.  
"Nothing else. That's fine," I said. Kilt nodded, cut the fish in half, slammed half of the fish on a slab of bark and handed it to me.  
"Yesh, don't hurt it. Thanks," I said, taking a big bite out of the fish and smiling as I gulped it without chewing.  
  
"The fish is already dead, Scar, you can't hurt it. I wouldn't want to eat it like that, I didn't take the bones out yet," he said, taking a bite and chewing it thoughtfully. I stopped in mid-bite and stared at him.  
"What?" he asked, eyeing me.  
"Kilt…"   
"What?"  
"HOW COULD YOU NOT STRIP THE BONES OFF THE FISH FIRST?" I screamed at him. He made a face and cowered jokingly.   
"Honestly! I'm not a cook, you know!" he said in defense.  
"Tastes like you should be. Just remember the bones next time you cook fish, Kilt," I said, taking another big bite, but searching for bones this time.  
"Thanks," said Kilt, watching me eat.  
"WHAT?" I asked. He smiled and bit his lip.  
"WHAT? Don't do that!" I screamed. Kilt burst out into laughter and pointed at me.  
"At least tell me what the hell you're laughing at so I can either laugh too, or kick your ass," I said. He calmed down a little and stuck his tongue out.  
  
"But I DID get all the bones out first! You should have seen your face! Hell, it was hilarious, and then you go blow up and then… heh, heh, you're going to kill me now, aren't you?" Kilt said, laughing then shrinking in false terror as I held up my fist. I finished off my fish, cursed at him under my breath, and walked away from the fire to the ocean's edge and started walking. Kilt was right, it was dead cold now that the sun had gone down. I was still very much awake, though, I had only woken up about five hours ago. Kilt was beginning to get a tinge of sunburn across his nose, I'd have to warn him about it in the morning. Or maybe not, and laugh at him when he starts complaining. I shuffled my feet through the waves that stayed upon the sand only for seconds, then returned, spraying water up around them. The water was still very warm from the bright day. I walked along until the small fire wasn't visible. I plopped down right after where the waves stopped and started building a castle in the light of the moon.  
  
The triple towers were as high as my head, sitting down, and the orb in the center was about the size of my head. I made little mini towers to circle the big towers and the orb, then connected it all with thick bricks of sand I packed together myself. If I stood up, I would probably have been ankle-deep in the water by now, but I didn't care. I could fly back wet and soaking at midnight for all I cared. I finally pulled my shirt off and threw it farther up onto dry beach (so I could at least have something dry to go home in) after the tide came up to my waist. I sat in my bathing suit and now completely soaked pants for about ten more minutes before Kilt landed in the water behind me.  
"What'cha doin'?" he asked, cocking his head to the side and looking at my half-sunken castle.  
"It WAS a castle. Then the tide," I said, convincing myself it was finished and walking out of the water to go find my t-shirt.  
"Are you mad at me?" Kilt asked. I turned around and looked at him.  
"No. Why would I be? But I would be if you knock that over," I said. He locked my eye[s].  
"So you're not mad at me?" he asked.  
"Why would I be mad at you? I swear you're starting to sound like Spink," I said.  
"You're not mad at me for playing that trick about the bones on you? I was kinda afraid when you went walking away that you were leaving," he said, walking up to me.  
"No, I'm not mad at you, not at all. And besides, would I really run away?" I said.  
"I wouldn't know," he said.  
"Honestly. I've made promises to you. Running away would be like breaking them, and I would die if I did that," I said, feeling the wind begin to pick up again.  
  
"You really take the promise stuff seriously, don't you," Kilt said, eyeing me.  
"Maybe I do. There's nothing wrong with that," I said, a tear rolling down my left cheek. I reached up to it the same time Kilt did. Our hands collided just above it. I jerked my hand back and looked down.  
"I'm sorry, Scarlet. I didn't mean to make you cry…" he said.  
"My… my left eye. It's crying," I said.   
"I noticed that already. How strange. I figured since you were blind in that eye that it wouldn't react to emotion normally. I guess I didn't do any research," he said softly. I didn't say anything, just looked down at the waves encircling our ankles. Another tear ran from my eye, than my other eye. Kilt put a finger under my chin and pulled my head up and looked me in the eyes.  
"Scar, I think I promised you something in return," Kilt said quietly.  
"Like what? I don't need anything else," I said, my voice shaky.  
"I don't know. Maybe a friend for as long as you live," Kilt said softly, pulling my head closer and planting a soft kiss on my cheek. I felt more tears run down my cheek, and Kilt brushed them away with his thumb.  
"O-okay. We're even now," I stuttered. Kilt smiled and lifted into the air. I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down.  
"I've got to get my shirt first, you bastard!" I yelled at him. He winced and smiled 


	23. Chapter 23 The Joys of being the only tw...

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Joys of Being Stranded on a Planet With One Other Human Being and A Bunch of Animals  
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Author:Well, this must be the losgent chapter I've ever written. Probably end up being the longest in the whole story! Oh well, Enjoy!  
  
I laid on my back soakin' in the sun. Kilt had showed me all around through the paths through the woods and what every little doo-dad in the camp was for. He figured I already knew my way around the beach and if I did I could fly around the planet until I starved. There wasn't too much to do today, even though I had to make dinner tonight. I was thinking along the lines of leftover fish or fried coconut. I smiled to myself thinking of how Kilt would react to fried coconut. Yes, definitely fried coconut. Speaking of Kilt, he walked over and sat down beside me.  
"Hey, Scar, what's your sign?" he said. I turned my head over to look at him questioningly.  
"Was that a pickup line?" I asked.  
"Uh… sorta," he answered, scratching his nose then wincing in pain.  
"Fins someone else to use pickup lines on, please," I answered, turning my face back to the sun.  
"Re-gect-ed," he laughed.  
"Yeah. Totally," I said.  
"Awww, come on, Scar! I'm almost 18, normal guys my age have girlfriends! It's not like there's anyone else to use pickup lines on either. We're the only two people on this planet. Who else am I supposed to ask? " he said.  
"Is this a normal situation? Sure, normal guys might have girlfriends, but this isn't anything near normal. Sure, we're the only two people on the planet, but that doesn't mean I'm into it yet, go talk to a turtle or a fish or toad or something. I'm sure they'll listen to you. Talking about dates, what day is it? Did you bring a calendar?" I asked. He was silent.  
"Obviously not. If we're gonna be civilized, we need a calendar. When's the last time you looked at one?" I asked.  
"I think it was when Spink died," he said. Oh, great, I just HAD to ask that question.  
"Oh, okay. What day was it?" I asked.  
"Day of Intention, Month of Flight, Day 13, Year 34 of the Operational Systems," Kilt said after a second.  
  
"Yesh, you memorized even what day of the week it was? I'm impressed. So that would make today… Day 25 of the Month of Flight and the Day of Reed, I think," I said, counting on my fingers. Kilt smiled.  
"Sounds good to me. You make the calendar. There's charcoal in the fire ring from last night when I made fish. You can use that to write on some bark you can go find," he said.  
"And all this comes from your damned pickup line, I guess," I said.  
"Quit guessing and get to work!" Kilt demanded with a bright smile on his face.  
"Yeah? You better make yourself some aloe or sunscreen or something before your nose peels off from being burnt," I said defiantly, hauling myself off the warm sand. He touched the tip of his nose and winced.  
"I-I guess you're right. I probably look a little funny burnt like that. My cheeks hurt too, are they burnt?" he asked.  
"Yeah," I answered, walking away to the fire ring.  
  
Kilt must have nicknamed it the fire ring. Sounded good to me. Had a nice ring to it. (Ring to it, fire ring, get it? No?) I bent down and shuffled through the ashes of last night's fire. Smelled like the fish. It was strange, I didn't expect ashes to smell like what had been cooking on them, I expected, well, a fiery smell that was common of ashes. I got down to the sand. There had been about three inches of ashes, how much wood did Kilt use, anyway? The sand was hard. I tapped my finger on it and picked it up. A small sheet of glass. What had Kilt been doing over here, anyway? I studied it for a second and ran over to my house to stash it. I brought out a leaf bag I had made that morning so I wouldn't look stupid running into the house like that and began rummaging through the ashes again.  
"You know that stuff is getting all over you?" Kilt asked, stepping up beside me and looking over my shoulder.  
  
"I don't care, the ocean is right there, and there's the lake out in the woods you showed me this morning," I answered, finally finding a piece of charcoal and sticking it in my bag.  
"Yeah, good point. Have fun. I'll be out there somewhere, too, researching plants and stuff to make an aloe. That's what I'll need first," Kilt said, beaming.  
"Yes. You'll be in a lot of pain tonight without it," I said.  
"Wonderful, isn't it?" he said.  
"Yeah, sure. Ashes and sunburns. This rules. Better than lava-world," I said.  
"You're joking, right?" he said. I stood up and whipped around to look at him, I smiled.  
"Duh," I said.  
"Been a long time since you've said that, Scar," he said. I turned around and began walking away.  
"It's been along time since I last said a lot of things, Kilt," I said, making my way into the forest. I don't know if he heard me or not.  
  
The lake was nice. Very nice. Minus the snapping turtles, and fish that tried to eat you, but couldn't because they didn't have teeth, and slippery bottom, and rocks that you didn't see until you stubbed your toe on them. Yes, that lake was very nice. I didn't stay in for more than five minutes. I was now on my hunt for good flat bark that would be good to write on. I found some and stripped enough for the rest of the year off the tree and made my way back to the camp. The camp, my house, the fire ring. We had come up with the most interesting things, hadn't we? Maybe we should just call the camp the city. I sat in the shade of the big palm that stood between my house from the sea, writing my calendar. I finished it after about an hour and went swimming the ocean for awhile and made another sand castle. I found two coconuts to fry for tonight's feast, and then started worrying about Kilt. Where was he? Or maybe he was paying me back for worrying him last night when I walked away for a few hours. Yeah, that's it, he wanted me to come find him. Jerk.  
  
I walked into the woods, taking each path that was most likely for Kilt to go on, looking for his aloe for his sun burnt nose. Then, I found him, sitting in front of a tree, clutching his ankle.  
"Kilt," I said. He bent his head around the trunk to look at me.  
"Oh yay, finally. I got bit by this snake, now take me home," he said, frowning.  
"You got bit by a snake and you're acting like that? You could at least scream for me. Was it poisonous?" I asked, kinda worried.  
"I think so, it had fangs the size of the nail on my pinkie finger," he said as I ran over, "Over dramatization, of course."  
"Let go of your bite, let me see it," I commanded. Indeed it had big fangs. Four big punctures in his ankle, and dead white from him clutching it so hard. At lease he had cut off circulation from the area.  
"Ouch. Where's the snake?" I asked. Kilt smiled through his look of pain.  
"I blew it up with a ki," he answered.  
"Oh. Well now we've got to get you back to the city before you die or something," I said. Kilt smiled again.  
"Well, I'm not the one who made the promise not to die," he said. I hauled him onto my back and started walking back to camp.  
"Hey, wait. Get my bag," he said dully. I could feel his pulse where I gripped him on his wrist, and it wasn't the best it could be. Now that he had let go of the wound, the poison had started circulating through his body. I turned around and grabbed his bag where he had been sitting before and flew him quickly back to the city.  
"Yeah, but I'm not gonna let you die, because then what would I do? The only two guys who have actually cared about me would be dead," I said in response to his earlier statement. Kilt grunted and his pulse fell sharply, and I flew faster.  
  
I flew through the open door of his house and dropped him off my shoulders into his bed. Then I started to panic. I didn't know what to do. How was I supposed to know what to do when you get bitten by a poisonous snake? We didn't have snakes on the Ops. I just couldn't let him die, either, I couldn't let him die. I didn't know what else to do, so I knelt down by his ankle and sucked at the wound and spit. It didn't seem to help any. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have this type of training. I was meant to blow stuff up, not treat snake bites.   
"I'm sorry. I just don't know what to do, Kilt," I said. I sat where I was and sulked. No, there must be a way. Medicine, vaccine, something. That was it!  
"I'll be right back!" I said, running out of the hut and into my own a few paces away. I quickly pressed in the code to open the pod and rummaged around behind the seat. It wasn't there. The First Aid Kit was supposed to be there. It had always been there, every pod had one, it was required, and the pods wouldn't even lift off if there wasn't one there. I pushed out of the pod and glanced around the room. Where was it? It wasn't in my house, that's for sure. I ran back over to Kilt's house. I opened his pod and looked behind the seat. There's one.  
  
"What are you doing, Scar?" he asked quietly. I could hear the suffering in his voice.  
"Don't strain yourself, I was trying to find a First Aid," I said.  
'"Might not help," he said, slurring the vowels.  
"Don't try to talk, if it doesn't help, you'll need all the energy you can muster up to stay alive," I said, rummaging through the tin box. I found some medicine and poured it down his throat, he gagged a little, but I made him swallow it. I applied some ointment to the wound and bound it up with a bandage. Kilt fell asleep before I was done wrapping up his ankle. I was still freaked out, I didn't know if I gave him the right medicine or if it would help, I didn't even know how long he had been sitting under that tree before I found him. I felt so stupid.  
  
"Hey, Scar?" someone behind me said. I whipped around, no one was there. I stood up and ran outside.  
"Scarlet!" someone said fiercely. I looked around.  
"Who's there?" I asked.   
"Here! Come here, Scar!" the voice said. I ran towards my house, but tripped and fell. I started sinking.  
"Help! Someone! I can't get out!" I cried desperately. Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me up out of the drowning pool of sand.  
"Don't gimme that helpless thing, Scar. You can do it. You could have gotten out yourself. Come on! Live, be life, and help life, and don't let go of it. You're time to die will come, but meanwhile don't give up, and don't give up on the rest of us, either!" Spink said to my face before dropping me back into the sinking sand. I groped and eventually pulled myself out.  
"Spink!" I called. He wasn't there anymore.  
I sat up violently and glanced around, taking in my surroundings. Kilt was asleep, still breathing, just asleep. What had Spink meant? I checked Kilt's pulse. It wasn't better, but it wasn't worse either. His breathing was normal, and the only thing wrong with him was the expression of pain on his sleeping face. The venom was definitely getting to him. I poured some more of the medicine into his mouth and pulled his head up so he could swallow. He woke up and smiled at me.  
"Sleep, don't try to use any energy," I said, putting him back down and starting to unbind his ankle.  
"The bag," he said.  
"What? Wait, don't answer that question, I'll find out myself," I said, glancing around the room. I found it, walked over to it and started rummaging through. There was a stick with a gel-like substance in the hollow center, there were various leaves and spices, and a few pieces of charcoal.  
"What do you want me to do, in five words," I said.  
"Mix everything but charcoal and put on bite," he said.  
"That was eight words, but oh well. Are you sure this will work?" I asked, not intentionally getting him to talk again, I didn't want him to try to talk.  
"Worth a try," he answered slowly, his voice cracking.  
"Okay, shut up and go back to sleep," I demanded. He nodded and drifted back off. Yesh. I ground the leaves and flowers and spices into a mushy pulp and mixed them into some of the gel. I applied it to his unbound ankle and then some to his sun burnt nose. Might as well try out the aloe thing too. I wrapped his ankle back up in a new bandage and walked outside. I leaned up against the palm and watched the last five seconds of the sunrise. Why did I have to be so mean to Kilt yesterday morning? I could have just gone along with it and then we wouldn't be in this situation. Then I even feel more stupid, because I didn't know what to do. I wish there was another person on this planet. One that knew how to treat snake bites.  
  
Three days… four days… five.  
"When are you gonna let me get up?" Kilt asked, pleadingly.  
"Maybe tomorrow," I said, putting more of the ointment on his ankle.  
"I told you," he said.  
"Told me what?" I asked, finishing and starting to bind his ankle up again.  
"About the mixing thing," he said.  
"Yeah, you saved your own life," I said quietly.  
"Maybe, probably not. You got me here and took care of me. I wouldn't have lived too long without your help," he said.  
"Least I could do, think of it as we're almost even on the life-saving business," I said.  
"Well, let's hope we never have the chance to be even, okay Scar?" he said, yawning.  
"Okay. And you're still sick. Want some fried coconut? I made some last night, but I couldn't get you to wake up to eat it," I said.  
"Fried coconut?" he said, making a face, "the coconuts are impossible to eat as they are, and you fried them?" he said.  
"Yeah, now they're eatable," I said, plopping a piece in my mouth and chewed it contently before swallowing.  
"Okay, gimme some!" he said. I laughed and gave him a whole coconut.  
  
"Scar?" he said.  
"Yeah?" I asked, turning my head from the sunset to look at him.  
"Sorry," Kilt said, not breaking his gaze from the melting sun.  
"Sorry for what? You don't have anything to be sorry about," I said. He whipped around and looked at me, intently.  
"I lied and kept information from you, again," he said.  
"What do you mean?" I asked.  
"I-I don't know, I just… I don't know why I feel that I have to hide all this from you, it's not like it's life changing or anything. I don't know… Scar, I just don't know," he said. I was quiet.  
"Scar… I don't know… I'm sorry," he said.  
"If you don't now what to say, why speak? You don't have to apologize, Kilt. Everyone must have secrets. I'm the one who should be apologizing. I'm sorry for being such a jerk the other morning, I guess I wasn't in a good mood," I said.  
"I'm sorry about that, too," he said.  
"Don't be. I don't blame you. You were just being a normal person," I said. He was silent and looked back over to the sunset. I felt it getting cooler outside already.  
"Kilt, you really should go back inside, with you're in-" I started. He held up a finger to my lips and pointed out to the ocean. There was a dolphin that came up every few minutes for air, it was an amazing sight, with the sea turning colors in the reflection of the sunset and the dolphin playing.  
  
"I forgive you, more than you know. I'm you're friend and I love you," Kilt said, a tear rolling down his cheek.  
"Yeah, me too, but you really need to get inside before you catch a cold, or something," I said.  
"You are such a cruel person, just make a fire so we can still enjoy nature," he said.  
"Yes, master, and soon the world shall be ours to rule," I said.  
"Scar, we're the only two humans on the planet. I think we could rule it if we wanted to," he said.  
  
I made a fire and started frying more coconuts. They would stay good for a long time after being fried, but from personal experience, they were better fresh out of the fire, nice and toasty.  
"Master of Youshey, is the fried coconut ready yet? I'm starving!" Kilt said, flying down and sitting beside me. I wouldn't let him walk on his foot, so he was limited to flying everywhere.  
"No. I haven't even started yet. I'm not the master of Youshey," I said, throwing a coconut into the fire and watched as the hairs sizzled and burnt.  
"Alright. Queen," he said.  
"I liked Master better. And I wouldn't be a queen, either," I said.  
"Okay, you would be a princess. A princess who's spell has been broken and who's heart has been stolen by the dashing prince who broke the spell," he said.  
"Kami, save me," I said, putting another coconut in the fire before bursting with laughter. Great. I was a princess again.  
"You fit the part," Kilt said.  
"Yeah. A battle-scarred child who is stranded on a planet with a lunatic who thinks he's prince charming," I said, laughing.  
"I'm not a lunatic," he said, laughing also.  
"You fit the part," I imitated, giggling.  
"Yeah?" he asked.  
"Not really," I answered thoughtfully, "You're just weird."  
"Well, so are you," he said.  
"And I don't have a comeback on that one," I said after a minute.  
"I won!" He laughed.  
"Sure," I said, smiling and walking off to go find a stick to get the coconuts out of the fire with.  
  
"You know what, Scar?" he said.  
"Quite frankly, I could or I couldn't. Go for it," I said, coming back and sitting down with a long damp stick.  
"This hasn't turned out to be that bad, really. I thought it would be a pain having to live off of the planet and stuff, and it would be so much harder to live on than the Ops, but really, it's better," he said.  
"I don't know if I fully get it, but sure, I kinda feel that way too," I answered, poking the stick at the first coconut.  
"This planet's like paradise. All we need are some beach loungers and some waitresses to serve us drinks," he joked.  
"Yeah, sure. Bring out the cabaña boys," I giggled. He laughed too.   
"Youshey is perfect," he said.  
"If you call almost getting killed by one of the native snakes perfect, fine, I'll go along with it' I joked.  
"That was an accident! I swear!" he laughed.  
"How?" I asked.  
"I wasn't watching where I was going, and I tripped over the snake and so it bit me," he answered.  
"How stupid," I said.  
"I guess it was, wasn't it?" he said, laughing. I maneuvered the coconuts out of the fire and let them cool before throwing one to Kilt and breaking the other open for myself. 


	24. Chapter 24 Scar Takes A Haitus!

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Scar Takes A Hiatus!!!!!!!!  
(AKA: Plans For Vacation)  
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Authors Note: This chapter is not is Scar's POV! She was getting kinda boring (gomen), so I wrote this chapter NOT in her POV! Yay!! Just this chapter, so don't get confused. And it was a VERY interesting chapter to have in Kilt's POV, the perfect chapter to do it. Enjoy!  
  
My foot was freezing. I didn't wanna wake up, but I was cold. I wouldn't be surprised if I had frostbite on my foot. I forced my eyes open, slowly flipped over, and sat up. Scar was asleep on the floor, sitting up with her back propped up against the edge of my bed. She had the first aid box open in her lap and her hands still lightly held a roll of bandages. I guess she was gonna re-wrap my ankle but fell asleep before getting around to it. Fine, Scar, fall asleep, leave me to freeze. I smiled at myself for thinking that, it was kinda mean. I carefully pushed the covers that were on me off and carefully climbed out of the bed. I stood there, not knowing what to do. I could wake her up, or leave her to wake up on her own. Either way she would be grouchy because she would get a cramp from having slept that way all night long. I finally decided to wake her up myself so she wouldn't be pissed at me all day for not waking her up, because she probably would be less had if I woke her up now. I hoped. Now, how to wake her up…  
  
"Hey, Scar, get up. Mornin', hun!" I said, shaking her gently. She grabbed my arm and flung me into a wall, which happened to fall, bringing the whole house down.  
"Damn it, Scar!" I said, sandwiched between sticks that used to be my house.  
"What'd I do?" She asked, groggy.  
"Take a look around you. This used to be my house until seven seconds ago, thank you very much," I said, shoving my way out of the pile.  
"I was asleep, and you're blaming me?" she said.  
"Hell, yeah. I was waking you up and you threw me into the wall and my house collapsed," I answered, flying out of the rest of the pile.  
"Sorry. Instincts I guess. I'll help you rebuild," she said, rubbing her forehead and her eyes from sleep.  
"Really?" I asked.  
"Like I have anything better to do with my time," she answered, smiling slightly. I bit my lip and I guess I must have smiled back or blushed or something because she let out a small laugh.  
  
"Hold it still, Kilt! Don't wave it around so much!" Scar complained. We were fixing my house. I was holding the sticks and she was tying. It was funny, we had been working four over four hours now, and when I made the house originally, it only took me two. What else was funny was the sun wasn't out. There was a thick layer of gray, ominous clouds icing the sky. We were on the second layer of sticks, lifting the height of the house from my waist to my chin.  
"Weird how we've been here for only a few weeks and we're already used to life here. It's like we've lived here our whole lives, and it's so normal," I thought out loud.  
"Yeah strange. Daily life is normal. Minus snakes and recovering from being nearly killed," Scar said, shuttering.   
"You okay? It is kinda cold out here, you know, and all your wearing is that two-piece" I said, flying down from holding up the sticks.  
"I'm fine, besides your only wearing a bathing suit yourself," she nodded, ignoring me and attempting to go back to work before sneezing.   
"Really?" I said, putting my arm around her shoulders.  
"I'm fine. Okay? I guess I just got a little used to ninety-degree weather," she said, shrugging me off. Oh well, I'll find another excuse to try again later.  
  
"What was that?" I asked, putting my hand to my nose. We had just begin putting up the branches to support the leaves for my roof.  
"What was what?" Scar asked, stopping what she was doing and looking over at me. Another drop fell on me.  
"That," I said.  
"Shit. That's rain," Scar said, finishing up her knot.  
"Real rain," I said softly, holding my hand out as more started falling. She whipped around and looked at me as realization hit her too.  
"It-it's real…" she whispered looking up at the sky. All our lives rain had been scheduled and made happen in the ALRs, but for the first time, we were experiencing real rain. I smiled, if things went as I planned, we would- I jumped as a loud crash of thunder hit me. The rain started to come down harder. Not the time to have fantasies about Ops, I had real life to deal with.  
"Maybe we should go inside so we don't get fried by lightning," Scar said, starting to lower herself to the ground.  
"Yeah, but not in this house, it doesn't have a roof," I answered, following suit. She looked at me hard for a minute then nodded.  
"My house then," she said, starting to run to her house. I began to follow after her.  
"Fly, damn it! Don't put any strain on your ankle!" She yelled over her shoulder.  
  
We burst into the little hut soaking wet, here wasn't more than 45 steps away from my house, but we were still soaked. Another clash of thunder made Scar jump, but I had been ready, having seen the lightning this time. But I found myself clutching her hands after the next roll of thunder. We had rain in the ALRs, but not thunder and lightning, it was too dangerous. Thunder was like a story of a sandstorm when you live in Atlantis.  
"Scar?" I said, tightening my grip on her hands.  
"What?" She asked, preparing herself for another roll of thunder.  
"Are you scared?" I asked. I wanted to know if she was, because I know I was scared. She was silent for a minute as soft thunder droned on outside.  
"Well?" I asked.  
"I-I don't know," she said, her voice cracking. I pulled her to me.  
"I'm scared. Freaked out," I said softly.   
"What does it feel like… to be scared… really?" she asked at a whisper.  
"Well… I guess your heart races and you get really worried… that's the best way I can describe it," I answered, pulling her closer so she was against me.  
  
"Scar, what do you think about going back to the Ops for two days?" I asked, finally deciding to ask her about it. She looked up at me.  
"What about Pokg? Won't he be looking for us?" She asked, a strange sound in her voice.  
"I aim to go to OP HQ, Pokg wouldn't go there. If he did and he was looking for us, they would ask why and he would get put in jail when they discovered he attacked us," I answered, already prepared.  
"Huh?" Scar asked.  
"OP HQ is the only OP where you can get arrested. Attacking someone for reasons other than to defend yourself, dignity, or train, is illegal. He attacked us for the Tryon Jewel, he will get arrested. He would search the other OPs first. On the other hand, if Geo were still alive he wouldn't have gotten arrested, he was fighting for dignity, understand the system here?" I said, enjoying Scar being so close.  
"I get it. But why do you wanna go back?" she asked.  
"We need some first aid kits, you need a sword, and I have some business to attend to," I answered, prepared for that question too.  
"What do you have to do?" she asked quietly after another bang of thunder jolted us. I heard the rain coming down hard outside.  
"I have to see somebody, nothing you need to be concerned with yet," I answered, pressing her closer against me in fright.  
  
"What is Pokg does find us, eventually?" Scar asked, "What would we do?"  
"We would survive it, we'll be ready. When we come back from the OP Headquarters we will start training, sound good?" I said, making it up as I went along, I didn't want to scare her. Years of having to be strong must have killed her senses if she didn't know what fright felt like. She nodded and gave into my grasp, and let me hug her tightly. It would take two days each way to get to OPHQ. We would stay for two days. We would put on the sleep control in the pods so we wouldn't have to endure two days of nothingness.   
"Leave in the morning sound good?" I asked. A brig crash of thunder slammed us, but I didn't weaken my grasp around her.  
"Fine," she whispered. We were quiet for a few minutes. I could feel her warm breath on my neck and shoulder, for a second I thought she had fallen asleep. I shook her gently and said her name. She looked up at me questioningly and I smiled.  
"Your hands are cold," she whispered.  
  
"Scar?" I asked after a few more jolts of thunder.  
"What, Kilt?" she asked wearingly.  
"While we're at the Ops, will… will you marry me?" I asked, I don't know why, impulse of the moment thing. She was silent for a minute. I would have asked her that same question ten years ago, and my longing for her now was the same, I loved her, but I didn't expect anything back yet, she wasn't going to say yes.  
"Kilt, I'm 17, and you'll be 18 in two and a half weeks, only 17. I don't want to marry you yet. We're too young, sure we're the only two people on the planet, but 17 is 17, Kilt. I'm sorry," she whispered. I understood her point, we were children, sorta, we weren't ready for something like that. Why'd I even ask, anyway?   
"That's okay. I wasn't expecting you to say yes, anyway," I said. She reached up and interlocked her fingers behind my back.  
"Mikochen," she whispered. I looked down at her.  
"What?" I asked.  
"I'm a Mikochen, my constellation. Isn't that what you originally wanted to know, anyway?" she whispered. It took me a moment to realize what she was saying. The other day on the beach, before I got bitten, I asked her what her sign was, and now she was answering me.   
"Thank you," I said. She let out a little giggle.  
"What?" I said.  
"It took you so long," she answered. I smiled. We both jumped as another crack of thunder hit us. I felt her pulse quicken then go back to normal after a minute.  
"Scar," I said.  
'What?" She asked quietly.  
"You're scared," I said.  
"Maiden in distress. Handsome prince rescue me!' she joked, tearing out of my grasp and falling onto her bed. I picked up a twig from the ground.  
  
"I, sir Kilt from Operational- no. I Prince Kilt, from the fair kingdom of Youshey, shall rescue you, fair lady!" I said, managing the best heroic voice possible before we collapsed in fits of laughter.   
"I shall slay the dragon and rescue you from the tower!" I said, holding up the twig like a sword.  
"I go from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White to Hercules only with a dragon instead of a horse-thing and Herc has a twig instead of a sword," Scar said, smiling.  
"What's the problem with that? Nothing wrong with Sleeping Beauty, now lay down and act asleep or dead or something," I demanded. She rolled her good eye and did as she was told. It kinda reminded me of when I lost my tail when I was five, the whole group of us were playing some fairytale and someone accidentally cut off my tale. Saiya-jins got their tails cut off at twenty, but most of us got our tails removed by some accident. The ones who's tails are lost earlier are the ones who are taught to go super and to be warriors.  
"Hello? Slay Dragon, Herc!" Scar said, laughing. I snapped out of it and slew the dragon. I climbed up the stairs of the tower to rescue my maiden. Scar did her best to act asleep without bursting out in laughter as I entered the princesses room. I froze. Finally, Scar opened her eyes and looked at me.  
"What's wrong?" she asked, sitting up and staring at me.  
"I'm sorry, Scar. I don't deserve this. Just fling me into the wall again," I said. I don't know why I said it, I just didn't feel as if I could keep playing this ridiculous thing, because she didn't fit the part, not at all.  
"I positively won't, then we would get struck by lightning and we would have to rebuild my house too," she said.  
'That would stink," I said.  
"Yeah, now rescue the princess and get it over with," she said, flinging herself back into position.  
"Wanna sing a Disney song first?" I asked.  
"Damnit! Do you feel alright, Kilt?" she asked.  
"I'm okay, you just don't seem that helpless to me, that's all," I said.  
"Maybe I should walk out of here, then how helpless would I be outside?" she asked. She had a point. Lightning could get anybody.  
"Okay! Fair maiden, I'm here to saaaaavvvvvvveeee~e youuuuu!" I sang out. I think I heard Scar cuss under her breath, but I ignored it and knelt down beside her bed. I pulled her into a half-sitting position and kissed her deeply. I don't think she was expecting that, because it took her a moment to give in to me. I don't know how long it lasted, but I liked it, it reminded me of right after I erased her, it was about the same as that, but she had been unconscious then. The other kisses had been tense and she really hadn't let it go on more than a few seconds, even when I was de-erasing her, I had the feeling she didn't want that and I stopped after I had given what was the minimum necessary for her to remember. After she broke it we were quiet.  
"I don't have anything to say," I said softly, not breaking our locked eyes.  
"Remind me being a princess can be okay sometimes, would you?" she answered quietly. The rain had died down a little, and there hadn't been any cracks of thunder for a while.  
"I think I will remind you," I said. She smiled and blushed. Or it could have been sunburn, assuming where we live.  
"Wanna go finish my house so I don't have to bunk with you tonight?" I said, winking. She made a face.  
"GLADLY!" Scar said. 


	25. Chapter 25 OP HQ: Once Again

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OP HQ: Once Again  
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"And one day, well all be very happy! Won't we, Scar?" Spink said, smiling.  
"Yes! We will! And maybe someday we will have a great adventure!" I laughed.  
"As long as it's not too dangerous, Scar," he said, laughing also.  
"And when we come back we can start a legend about a new world, and everyone won't know it's their own ALR!" Spink said. I could already see him devising a plan in his laughing eyes.  
"That would be very strange," I said, thinking about it.  
"Not too much stranger than you!" Spink laughed. I laughed and slapped him playfully.   
"And you're not strange yourself?" I said.  
"Someday we'll have that adventure. All three of us!" Spink managed between bursts of laughter.  
"Hey, Scar. Come on! Wake up! We gotta leave today!" Kilt said, lightly kicking me in the back with his foot. I turned over and glared at him. I really felt like punching Kilt in the nose just then. He smiled and stuck out his tongue at me.  
"What was so funny, anyway?" he asked. I shook my head and dragged myself into a sitting position.  
  
"So what will we need to take with us?" I asked, yawning.  
"Darn, you! Stop it! You'll make me-" Kilt attempted before breaking out into a big yawn himself. I repeated the question and he smiled.  
"No worries! I already packed everything!" he said gleefully. I shook my head.  
"So, are we gonna eat first, or wait two days before we get to OP Headquarters?" I asked jokingly.   
"Are you joking? Eat now AND then!" he said, making a face at me. I rolled my eye and flew over to a coconut tree and pulled off two green coconuts. The green ones were sweet and better tasting than the ripened ones. Kilt quickly built the fire and I threw in the coconuts. Kilt came over and sat down beside me.  
"So, let's make a list!" Kilt said.  
"First Aid Kits, Sword, Laser Guns, plates and eating utensils. How are we gonna pay for it? We didn't bring money, Kilt?" I said.  
"We can trade something, I guess. Scar, I'm pretty sure you can come up with something to trade. We also need to see a doctor for all our eyes and bites and shit, and I need to go see somebody," he said.  
"Business to attend to," I quoted. He nodded. I stared into the fire. What could we trade? What was something valuable on the Ops that we had here in the city and general area?  
"Wait! I think I might have something!" I said, standing up excitedly.  
"Well, what are you waiting for girl? Go get it!" Kilt shrugged.  
  
I ran over to my house and emerged a few moments later with a small sack made of leaves and sisal twine. Kilt looked at me questioningly when I sat back down.  
"Whatcha got in there, Scar? Rocks?" he asked. I opened it up and pulled out a sheet of glass about the size of my hand for him to study.  
"Glass? Scar, where the hell did you get this?" he asked, taking the piece of glass and examining it.  
"Every day I collected the ashes and charcoal and stuff out of the fire ring and made sure there was a good coating of sand before starting the next fire. Every day a new sheet of glass. Pretty nifty, huh?" I said proudly.  
"Scar, you just keeps amazing me," he said.  
"You might want to start putting aloe on your nose again," I informed him, and his hand flew up to his face.  
"Won't matter, we won't be here for the next 6 days anyway," he said.  
"When are we gonna leave?" I asked, maneuvering the coconuts out of the fire ring with my stick.  
"How about right after you finish eating?" Kilt said, breaking open his coconut and gobbling up half of it before I could answer.  
"Just be sure to put on normal clothes. Go program the pods when your done, which is going to be pretty much in a minute," I said, breaking open my own coconut and savoring the sweet juice.  
"Okay, Ruler of Youshey," Kilt mumbled around a mouthful of coconut. I muttered curses under my breath before taking a big bite of coconut.  
Kilt finished of his coconut and went to go program my pod a few moments later. I threw another log into the fire and stared at the dancing flames, chewing on my coconut.  
  
I was already beginning to feel feverish in my clothes, but ignored it and went on arguing with Kilt over the list of things to get. We finally agreed on a set list and starting clearing up around the city so it would all be standing when we returned. I put out the fire and pushed my pod out from it's lodge in the wall of my house. I was afraid my home would collapse, but the wall stayed snug. I opened the pod door and started making things comfortable for a two days sleep. I had packed when I had changed into my normal clothes and now the bag was thoroughly lodged behind my seat with the empty first aid kit. Kilt put a hand on my shoulder and I stood up and turned around to face him. Kilt smiled.  
"What?" I asked.  
"You look kinda flushed, that's all," he said.  
"This attire is way to warm for this climate," I said, walking around him and starting towards the fire ring to gather today's glass. Kilt grabbed my wrist and spun me around to face him. He locked my eyes and wouldn't let them go. From the grip on my wrist, he wasn't letting that go either.  
"What?" I asked harshly, breaking the silence.  
"You don't look to good, are you okay?" he asked.  
"I'm fine, I'm just burning up in these clothes, faster we leave, sooner we get there, and I'll be okay, quit looking at me that way!" I said in defense. He didn't let my eye go. But it didn't really seem like he was looking at my good eye, or really at me at all. He didn't say anything. We stood there in silence for a few minutes until finally he let go of my wrist and looked away. I ran over to the fire ring and grabbed the piece of glass and made my way into my pod. Kilt was actually beginning to scare me, but I didn't know why. I welcomed the softening aroma of the sleeping gas as my pod lifted from the ground and made it's way out of Youshey's atmosphere.  
  
"Hey, Scar, wake up," Kilt whispered from the bright plasma screen in front of me. I moaned and rubbed the sleep roughly out of my eyes. I decided I liked dreamless sleep.  
"Scar, we'll be there in five minutes, so get ready. I nodded and looked past his glowing face to the front window. That was Op Headquarters, indeed, just a little light, but in several minutes would be a towering metal artificial satellite of several stars and planets.   
"-Scar? Scar, are you listening to me?" Kilt asked, regaining my attention. I nodded, still groggy from the sleeping gas. I turned off the plasma screen he was on and put on the ultra solitaire game and beat it twice before we came upon the Op. I gazed at it's immenseness. I had only seen it a while ago, but not had noticed how technical and advanced and big it was.  
"Damnit, Scar! Don't shut me off like that again! Pull up to Dock B, that's what the guy told me to do. Wake up, please?" He said. I felt my stomach growl impatiently. I smiled at him.  
"First, we need to get some food, I'm dying'!" I said, trying to manage the best possible happy face I could.  
"You feeling alright?" Kilt asked.  
"I'm perfectly fine! That's the third time you've asked me in the past week, what's with you?" I asked. I did feel fine, great, actually, just sleepy. Kilt didn't answer, now he was the one to cut the connection. I felt relived that he cut it, now I could concentrate on landing in Dock B. I shifted the pod off of autopilot and maneuvered into Dock B.  
  
"Why do people keep staring at us, it's not like we're aliens or anything," Kilt said on a whim, before stuffing his face with a sandwich. We sat in OP Headquarters Café gobbling down all the real food we could manage. We had been living so long on fried coconuts, I had forgotten what real food tasted like.  
"Yeah, I know, we're Saiya-jin, just like them. Our scars and stuff are normal in this race, and we do come from another Op, but this is HQ, they get people from all the Ops here all the time," I said through a large wad of onigiri I had just taken a bite of.  
"Strange. Maybe they know about the last time we were here or something. The guy you beat up did tell us that not too many people come back out of that room alive," Kilt said, finishing off his sandwich and gulping down a whole can of Oy! Cola*.  
"Dunno. Didn't notice it till you said something, either," I said, shoving the rest of the onigiri down my throat.  
"Time to go do some weapon shopping, whadya say?" Kilt said. I smiled and nodded, gulping down the last drop of lemonade.  
  
Now I was aware of the people glancing over their shoulder and around corners at us. It started to give me the creeps, actually. I could tell it was freaking Kilt out, too, he returned the peoples glances and stares with a creepy glare I really don't recall him doing too many times before. I was happy to jump in the elevator after Kilt and slam the 'close door' button.  
"Well, that was freaky," I said, pushing another button for the floor with the shops. Other than that, we were silent and both gladly stepped off the elevator.  
"Okay, you, weapons, me… everything else…" Kilt said. I nodded and started down one of the corridors, searching for the shop the guy at the docking bay told me about. There were shops ranging from plants to humanoids, all in a vivid blend of colors. I had never been here before, besides for the Mio mission, then it had been business, get in, kill, get out. The amount of shops and bright flashy colors were beginning to make me dizzy. I held on and kept looking. Then, there at the very end of the corridor was the place I was looking for, Harnessed Power. I walked up to the counter and smiled at the guy across it.  
"Whadya want, missie?" He asked roughly.  
"I heard you people made swords and I was wondering if you had one that would suit me?" I said. The guy looked at me hard.  
"Scar?" he said.  
"Yeah? How'd you know my name?" I asked.  
"You don't remember me? Ah, that makes me a little sad," he said, pulling the toothpick out of his mouth and giving me a big smile, "I'm Frei! Remember? I used to flirt with Mei, and Spink always got so mad at me?"   
"Frei, you flirted with everybody. How did you end up here?" I laughed.  
"Ah, me dad made me leave Op 3 about two years after the Tryon incident and-" he clamped his hand over his mouth and looked at me.  
"What?" I asked, "I remember Tryon. Kilt de-erased me." He gave me a smile.  
"Ah, I know how de-erasing works, so, Kilt finally got what he wanted after all these years, I guess. Anyway, my dad made me move here and I was-" he stared again.  
"What do you mean by that?" I asked. He gave me a look.  
"No sense in not telling you, that boy's liked you since we were… let me see… like six or something like that. So anyway, I work here now. What kinda sword do you want, Scar?" He asked. I was quiet for a minute. Was I really, no, am I so ignorant to not notice it before?  
"Er, Hallo? Scar? Op HQ to Scar, come in please," Frei joked, flinging his hand out in front of my face and waving it around.  
"How did you know he erased me, even?" I asked.  
  
"Eh, when he told us not to talk to you about Tryon, I knew something was not right, so I did some light researching on Kilt and found out he could erase. I figured that's what he did to you. So, you remember, now?" Frei said.  
"Actually, there's only bits and pieces I do remember," I said, just now really thinking about it.  
"Really? You only remembered what he wanted you to remember. Smart on his part, Kilt was never much of a thinker. So, I hear Op 3 kicked the bucket, right?" he said. I clenched my fist.  
"That was Pokg. He did it. He killed everyone on that Op besides me and Kilt," I said through clenched teeth.  
"Be on the lookout, last I heard the was at Op 5 looking for you guys. That reminds me, how did all of you survive the ALR here?" Frei said.  
"Dunno. I guess just got out before we were killed. I want 32 inch blade with a fifteen inch handle, kinda curved blade, but not so it's not useable, please," I said.  
"Sure, no problem, it'll be done by tomorrow, 900 Zinny. So, where are you and Kilt staying, anyway? Yes, I'm assuming you two are sticking together now that Pokg's out to get you for your shards," Frei asked.  
"That's information we agreed not to disclose to anyone for our own safety," I said, flinging my leaf bag off my shoulder and pulling out a shard of glass, "Will this cover the cost? It's strong and doesn't weigh almost anything, made with real sand." Frei took the piece from me and examined it closely.  
"Judging from your bag and that this was made from sand, no wonder Youshey's off the uninhabited list. No, don't worry, I won't tell anyone, I swear," he said, "This'll cover the costs and much more, what else do you want?"  
"Really? It's worth that much? Two laser guns," I said, placing my bag back on my shoulder and pointing to some handheld models on display under the glass of the counter.  
"Ah, good choice, Scar," he said, taking the two and handing them to me. I put them in my bag, careful not to break the glass. Frei looked at me hard.  
"Scar, be nice to Kilt. You've given him enough abuse in his life to deal with from someone he loves. Just be nice. Please?" he said solemnly.  
  
Jut as I was about to ask what the hell that meant, Kilt came bounding over.  
"Scar! Where have you been?" I've been looking all over for you!" he panted.  
"I've been standing right here," I answered, "I got the laser guns, and we can pick up my sword tomorrow morning."  
"Yeah, you wouldn't believe! I bought everything on just one piece of glass- Frei?" He said, then glancing over my shoulder to Frei.  
"Glad you at least recognized me, I had to tell Scarlet who I was and then she remembered," he said. I rolled my eye and stepped aside so Kilt and Frei could catch up on life. After a few minutes I heard Kilt cuss under his breath.  
"Damn it! We've gotta go, I made a doctors appointment and we're gonna be late, don't wanna be! Who knows what diseases we got?" Kilt said, gabbing my wrist and tugging me along. I waved at Frei before a mist of people broke all vision possible. Kilt pulled me along through the crowd and onto the elevator.  
  
"Didn't quite expect to see Frei there, or anywhere for that matter," Kilt said quietly.  
"Me neither, did you get your stuff?" I asked. He smiled and pointed to the stuffed canvas bag he was holding.  
"Yep. Obviously, you found what you wanted," he said.  
"And some information you would like to know," I said.  
"What?" he asked.  
"I'll tell you later. Don't feel like it now, it's gotta sink in," I said. He was quiet for a minute.  
"You know what, Scar? How about later we go to the ALR-" he started.  
"ALR? This is Op HQ, are you insane or something?" I asked. It took him a minute to realize what I was saying. He nodded and the happiness seemed to leave his eyes but not his face, and he smiled at me.  
"Thanks for reminding me. I was kinda planning on seeing an ALR again, but I guess I chose the wrong Op. Should've gone to 5 instead," he said as the elevator door opened.  
"But Op five is where Pokg is, looking for us. Some of the information I just learned," I said. Kilt looked at me for a second.  
"Well, if that's part of the info, I don't wanna hear the rest until after we get home, okay?" he said. I nodded and caught the door as it was going to close again.  
  
"So, you found a cure and then you came here to get it checked?" the doctor asked, examining Kilt's ankle, after hearing the snake story.  
"Yeah. Am I okay now, though?" Kilt asked somberly. In one elevator ride I had managed to screw up his whole 'happy mode' thing he had going on. Welcome to the crew, Kilt. I was pissed from the moment I woke up this morning in a cramped space pod.  
"I'll have to give you some little anti-venom pills for you to take for the next week or so, just to be safe," the doctor answered after a second.  
"Okay. Other than that bite, you seem pretty okay to me, " he told Kilt, then turned to me, "You're next, missy." He gestured to the tall table Kilt had just flown off of and I walked over and hauled myself up. I sat there in silence, swinging my legs, waiting for the guy to finish filling out Kilt's prescription.  
"So, what's wrong with you?" he asked, not looking up.  
"My eye," I answered casually. The doctor turned around in his spinney chair with wheels and looked at me over the brim of his glasses. I returned the look with an innocent, blank stare. I saw Kilt flash me a look from across the room and mouth something I couldn't make out. I shrugged at him and turned my attention back to the doctor, who I hadn't noticed get up in my face and start examining my eye.  
"I take it you're blind in this eye because you didn't see my movements," said the doctor.  
"No, I can't see from it. What were you doing? Cartwheels? Jumping jacks? Electric Slide?" I asked. Kilt emitted a small snort of laughter and I gave him a sharp look. He put on his best innocent face.  
"Anyway, looks like something was irritating it, and you must have rubbed it into your eye or something that made it bleed, the inside of your eye is filled with blood. Never seen a case like this before, normally people get blind from looking at too bright ki(s). Any irritation or anything?" the doctor asked me.  
"I was unconscious for three days before I woke up. Then it started bleeding and I couldn't see," I answered calmly.  
"Strange, but why didn't you go to a doctor immediately after it happened?" he asked. I was quiet for a minute before answering.  
"There were no doctors," I said. The doctor gave me a blank look, Kilt hung his head quietly.  
"Every Op had doctors!" exclaimed the doctor.  
"Sir, you're not aware of our situation. We were the two remaining survivors of Op 3. When this happened, we were there, and it was a few days after everyone was murdered by Pokg," Kilt piped up cautiously. The doctor didn't respond for a moment.  
  
"So, you two mean to tell me that you are the two that fought the Mio and are now being tracked by that guy everybody thought was dead until he showed up at Op 2? I don't believe you," he said.  
"Fine, don't believe us if you don't want to, it's not going to hurt my feelings at all. So, can you do anything for my eye?" I asked hopefully.  
"Yeah. Some special eye drop formula that'll dissolve anything that's not supposed to be in your eye. First, I advise you to take some of this and go lay down on the couch because if you aren't asleep, it'll hurt like the dickens," the doctor said, handing me two sleeping pills and a glass of water.  
"Damnit. I feel like I sleep all the time, you know? Yesh. Okay. Don't do anything too fun without me, 'kay, Kilt?" I said, gulping down the pills and going over to the couch.  
"Sure, you can count on that," he said.  
"Those will knock you out at least 'till morning," said the doctor.  
"Ah, well, thanks for warning me before I took them," I said, yawning.  
"Sure, whatever," he said, putting the drops in my eye. It burnt, but the pain was soon replaced by sleep.  
  
*= 'Oy! Cola' is from Ojajamo Doremi, I don't know what fuction it plays or whatever, but I know it's a drink with a little fist illustrated on the can. Anyway, not my invention, doesn't belong to me. I'm not taking credit. Don't sue me. Thank you, thank you very much. 


End file.
